Unpacking the special prosecutor's report: "I have absolutely nothing. But that won't stop me from taking a thoroughly partisan and inappropriate swipe at the president".
Unpacking the special prosecutor's report: "I have absolutely nothing. But that won't stop me from taking a thoroughly partisan and inappropriate swipe at the president".
My Mom is batting a .248 on getting the right name of the celebrity actor that was in that movie from however many years ago. She has never referred to my doctor by the right name, and today called Chapstick a utensil. (We were having Chinese food). On the other hand, she spent the week filing all the paperwork to apply for Medicare, helping her sister with my Grandma's estate, and helping my brother switch *his* healthcare, with nary an error made. Everyone trusts her to do this more than anyone, which is strange because I guess she's clearly senile.
My Dad had a long conversation with me tonight about the various federal court immunity cases. He mixed up the states involved and couldn't remember the names of 1 or 2 of the Justices, but had a full grasp of all the concepts and reminded me of a few theories I was unaware of. Go figure. He had the day off from his foreign trade paralegal job, which requires he communicate with multiple countries on all continents over sensitive matters, where any mistake he makes could cost someone a million dollars despite the fact that the original documents are in languages he does not speak and everyone is on a different timezone and working under differing sets of law. The other day he said El Salvador when he meant Ecuador, so I don't know why they still trust him to do that job, because I guess he's clearly senile.
Come to think of it, I probably can't judge this. Not because I don't have a medical degree, but because *I* am clearly senile too. I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday (eggs? fish?... carrots??). I don't know what date my dentist appointment is off the top of my head, how many weeks it has been since the last one, what the name of the street the office's address is, what MY address was in college, 98% of what I learned in college, or what year I started taking classes again. It's only going to get worse. I should see if I can get on disability before I hurt someone!
For lord's sake, the President is an old man. He makes embarrassing verbal slips, including some doozies this week. I know most of us here are fans, but let us not sugar coat this. He's *always* been a gaffe machine, and there is no way it was going to get better with age. However, that is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to his experience, knowledge, temperament, and abilities to make tough decisions and carry out his duties. As a citizen, I am satisfied with his accomplishments and feel he shares my values, which is why I will be supporting him again. His opponent also is an old man who makes embarrassing verbal slips. My opposition to him is not because of these whoopsies, but because everything he says and does on purpose is absolutely damnable and psychotic.
I am so deeply tired of this shallow bullsh!t, I cannot tell you guys.
What an astutely, perceptive commentary of real life! The older we all get, the more real knowledge we carry with us. Some of it gets garbled in the verbal retelling. But what never changes is a personтАЩs character. I think we have plenty of evidence that speaks clearly to the character of President Biden and the lack there of in former President Trump. Whether or not you even agree with his politics, there is not one ounce of evidence that President Biden will ever, under any circumstances, stray from his oath to the US Constitution. Conversely, we all know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that Trump has no integrity, whatsoever, and will burn the Constitution as soon as he is given the chance. He tried to do it before and he and his cohorts are hell bent on usurping our constitutional republic once and for all in this next election. Integrity be damned!
I pray that Liz Cheney is not the only Republican with a spine who is willing to support the Constitution despite party politics, knowing this election will be the deciding factor between democracy or fascism. We cannot allow Trump anywhere near the oval office ever again!
Not members of the MAGA cult. We have several R neighbors and none of them voted for death star even the first time. Only wing nuts buy the nonsense. For many of the death star speaks to their prejudices and fear and for some, their fundamental "Christianity."
An R friend of mine was upset with me for asking her whether she voted for Trump. Her response to me was: I am a republican but he doesn't represent me. That's not how I feel.
Her response alone confirmed to me what I had already thought and said since 2016. What trump says and does resonates with his supporters (to some degree). And now we see them.
I somewhat agree with you, MayPat. However, IMO there is a difference. Ms. Cheney is in front of the TV cameras speaking loudly and frequently to the nation about the dangers of allowing Trump and Co. back in the White House.
IтАЩve been reading Adam KinsingerтАЩs Substack messages for a couple months now and I would describe his message delivery as more like speaking quietly behind his hand so only the persons on either side of him actually hear what heтАЩs saying. His messages clearly say (complain?) that RтАЩs are not standing up to Trump, RтАЩs are no longer attempting to govern in a moderate, center-right manner, RтАЩs are embarrassing themselves. RтАЩs are sadly succumbing to the fear of MAGA retaliation and threats by either going along with the тАЬfreedom caucusтАЭ or тАЬretiringтАЭ from political office. (Adam went so far as too physically relocate his family to Texas because of harassment in his home State of Illinois). I havenтАЩt seen any statements crediting the current administration for its great work and accomplishments. Just criticism of what RтАЩs are doing or not doing.
Interestingly, just a few days ago he actually ran his own survey to gauge who was reading his Substack - the responders were overwhelmingly Democrats. Very few identified as RтАЩs or former RтАЩs or even Independents. His own survey proved that his message is not reaching the audience who needs to hear what he is trying to say. His commentary strikes me as a sad lament of what other RтАЩs could or should do to stop Trump from regaining office.
Yes, you make excellent and important points. Just sounds like he found a new choir, us Dems. But when I watched his podcast with Mary Trump and Katie Couric (yes Dems) I felt some hope
Maybe out of the steam here but as someone said: "a vote is a chess move , not a valentine " Good to remember for R that hold their nose & vote for a D.
MaryPat, thank you SO much for linking this YouTube video!! What an impressive, informational conversation. It helped me realize Adam IS doing more, and perhaps being a louder voice, than I thought just from following his SubStack. I so appreciate your sharing this interview.
Question: have you read his book? Do you recommend?
Well, it was the R's who tanked the immigration bill because dumb Donald wants to run on immigration as an issue. I cannot for the life of me, figure out how he thinks he has a winning hand on immigration since he tanked the possibility of passing some sort of immigration reform. Donald tRump is a dunce and a bully; he proves it every time he opens his mouth. The R's lack the nerve to take down tRump.
If trump was so good, why didn't he solve the problem when he was president? He did have some good ideas for the wall. Put solar panels on it. Make it transparent so drug smugglers could be caught throwing bags of drugs over the wall. He failed last time, hat makes everyone think he will succeed now. If he does, it will come at a terrible price.
Romney hired private security people. With that, Jan 6th, and the threats to the juries and judges, one would surmise that trumpers are violent. Not all but it only takes one bullet to kill someone.
Let me intercede here... Donny J. frump is the Repub's chosen poster boy, even with all his baggage, leaving the once proud GOP rudderless. Of course the Repub Party is in a world of hurt too. But there is hope for the politcians of that bent; Liz Cheney. As a lifelong member of the Democrat Party I have to continue to wonder when the fools will wake up. Likely not even after the end of 2024. Sad.
And @Will, from Cal, donтАЩt forget about his team. I trust the people BIden has around him. I trust that they are driven by policy, not power. (Often to our short-term detriment.) I trust that the Continuity of Government will steady the ship should Biden, in his second term, have a тАЬMitch McConnell moment.тАЭ
Behind the scenes, Harris stands where I stand on Dobbs and Jobs and THATтАЩs what matters.
Will, excellent post!! "Shallow" is the best word to describe the Republicans who have no depth of character or integrity. Your comments are so applicable to many people I know, including me. :) When I was teaching, I'd often get so stressed by everything that was expected of me, that I couldn't remember students' names, or what committee meeting I should be attending, or my mind would wander to more peaceful times. I found myself staring out the window more than the children. I was told that I was a very good teacher, and I see former students who thank me for motivating them. ( I knew when it was time to stop teaching, and I'm sure that President Biden will know when it is time to stop being president.) Which is to say, as you said, that people can be very competent and accomplish wonderful things and still get confused. ("Why did I come into this room?") I read somewhere that stress is a great contributor to forgetfulness. If anyone has a right to be stressed it's President Biden.
People who criticize him and overlook Trump's idiiotic blunders are "pancake people"--a lot of surface area but not much depth.- shallow.
I would say "evil" is the best word to describe today's R along with "soulless". They are clearly the party of death, guided only by lust for power, greed, and political theater. They know they have nothing for ordinary people in this country.
Pam, I recall from a long ago SNL segment called тАЬsnigletsтАЭ the cobble-created word for wondering why you walked into a roomтАж.they named it тАЬdestinasiaтАЭ. I have been using it ever since because it is SO apt!
It is infuriating that the MSM will spend hours or column inches carping on President Biden's gaffes (which are nothing new) and gaps, yet say nothing about the truly insane thing Trump says on a daily basis. Yesterday he again told his most egregious lie: that he went to World Trade Center on the day. He added a new twist, that it was 7/11 (seven eleven), not 9/11. I might be biased but I do think that getting the date of the most memorable attack on US soil wrong is more concerning than confusing Mexico and Egypt.
I agree!! I can't stand to even see Trump's face, much less hear his whiny voice. He is truly sickening to me, but apparently some people would rather see and hear a lunatic, then see and hear a man with integrity and compassion.
I just read the subtitles and quotes in articles. I can stand listening to him' I will say that he does not have a monotonous voice and expressive facial features. His eyes look so porcine to me. Ironically pigs will eat humans if given them chopped up.
Will, yesterday I had a productive discussion with an in-law who тАЬcanтАЩt vote for Trump but is very concerned about Biden because heтАЩs too oldтАЭ. 15 minutes later she was much much less concerned. One vote at a time, lets win this one vote at a time
We are all tired, but your contributions to the narrative are stellar. Be tired, keep at it. Blessings
I am SO with you, WillтАжI, too, get a touch of aphasia ( especially when stressed over the many difficult events of life that donтАЩt come anywhere near the stress of events Biden must shepherd the country through), but that has been going on since I was thirty years old, and it has nothing to do with competency (I have been a newspaper editor, EMT, and written nine non- fiction books and more articles than I can shake a stick at over that time .. and I am not even special, just living a life with an occasional touch of tip-of-the-tongue issues all of us get). I wish people understood how normal BidenтАЩs memory actually is, and how sick and twisted Donnie actually is.
I am just about Biden's age as is my husband. Sometimes neither one of us can remember a name or something else and then it comes to us when we aren't trying to remember. And I often have to concentrate on what I am doing a little more and yes, I have why am I in this room moments. Then I remember.
To me, the older you get, the more files you have. Files of information, facts, data, pictures, etc., along with so many memories. For many of us, including Joe Biden, it's just a matter of figuring out where you filed the piece of information you're looking for. It pops up, sometimes at 3am, but it's there, all stored. Additionally, you can refresh your memory with Google. And memory issues, to me, are not nearly as important as being vulnerable, laughing at yourself sometimes, being willing to learn new things, telling the truth and having integrity, and practicing kindness and compassion. And Joe Biden embodies those qualities.
Mona, exactly! This is how IтАЩve long described it to folksтАж.so much тАЬstuffтАЭ in my brainтАФlike an overstuffed file cabinetтАФto sift through to find the data IтАЩm after!!!!
I like Kamala a lot. I was very confused as to why, at the beginning of the Biden/Harris administration, the Democrats were attacking her. I did find a reference to NYT Op Ed that said she wasn't a progressive prosecutor. I think these folks don't get how she sees her role in reforming criminal justice. In her book "The Truths We Hold," she states there is a common issue with false equivalency: you could either be tough on crime or soft on crime. She lists three examples, but I'll just give one. She said you can want the police to stop crime in your neighborhood and still be against them using excessive force.
Op Ed By Lara Bazelon saying not Progressive (BTW - Lara has changed her mind about Kamala Harris based on post-California activities
Some complain about Kamala because she hasn't been more front and center in domestic politics, and Biden has not used her as a true partner. I beg to differ. He has given her intensive training in what one needs to know to be president. He gave her a foreign policy portfolio on immigration. He has given her opportunities to travel the world and meet world leaders and I imagine they have had subsequent conversations about what she learned. She went to the Climate Change conference this year and was in conversation with Arab leaders concerning the current crisis. She has been involved with Ukraine. She is being mentored by a very capable president to take his place. The current state of the world is such that I don't think he feels it is time to step back. I believe, he feels they'll navigate this better together, especially since some political operatives have done everything possible to discredit her in the public eye. Quite frankly, there are still too many Americans unwilling to accept a woman as president.
Will, as always, you hit the nail on the head. I want to add - as I have before - letтАЩs not just compare these two men running for president; letтАЩs compare the cabinets, attorneys and advisors with which they have surrounded themselves. Do we really want Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Alina Habba or Mike Flynn anywhere near the seat of power? Making domestic or diplomatic decisions that impact our lives? I think not. Judge a man by his associates, not his age.
Will from Cal.....THANK YOU for saying so perfectly what I believe and have always thought about Biden. I believe he will go down in history as one of the best people's presidents since FDR.
He has my vote. He will always have my vote. Hur and the media be damned in their partisan shenanigans.
Thank you Will & Lin. Per David Hurtz' 2/8 'Talking Points Memo' (TPM) & despite being "optimistic & vigilant" David posted, "If fascism is a disease then the United States is vulnerable"
Good to know this LFAA Community is an able Trauma Center. Carry on all.
Some recall that I came to LFAA as a Life Skill remedy from 9 days of unconsciousness. When you think about ( & my docs did) HCR is much like a Trial Attorney -- scrupulous situational & historical context with citations posted on real-time history all under my neurologist's Motto:
"The neurons that fire together rewire together". : )
Sure, Biden has made verbal mistakes. But he never misidentified in a photo the woman he raped by saying she was his second wife, during a deposition. Or now owes said woman (E. Jean Carroll) $88.3 MILLION and amounting, with interest.
(That should be front and center of every response by allies of Joe Biden.)
There's memory foibles and then there are deteriorating mental abilities. I, too, suffer from the former (when will I ever remember to get the flashing to put on the side of my outdoor stairs to keep the stupid particle board from disintegrating) and have witnessed the latter in people who are in the throes of dementia or Alzheimer's. There are differences, people.
My lord, YES! People refuse to stop conflating these things. They have the discernment of a grade school bully's sidekick, looking for any flaw just so they can yell "Haha, you're rEtArDeD!!!" from across the lunchroom. Elderly-man-who-said-a-word-wrong does not equal dementia sufferer. It is so insulting to anyone who has suffered. A person with actual dementia could not make it through a speech even with a teleprompter, much less negotiate with foreign leaders. If the President was senile, it would be *literally impossible* to cover it up.
Can't wait until we actually get our first female President and polls start asking whether the public is concerned with her fitness because some people think she's a bit shrill on certain days. Don't want her to PMS when she's talking to someone important!
I have just written to the Justice Department saying that Hur should resign since his obvious ageism is a bias that is not fitting in a department that exists to enforce that we are just.
It's too late to dump Hur. My question is: Did AG Garland read that document before it was released? Did he approve that mess? Why didn't he demand that the statement stick to the facts and the decision? It's to be a legal explanation, not an editorial on ageism. Good grief. I try to be charitable to Garland. But I think he blew it again.
Exactly what I was wondering--Including personal comments in such a report is SUPPOSED to be strictly prohibited. Garland should have read it and edited those bits out.
I'm getting rather fed up with Garland's miss-steps. I was willing to give him a lot of room for the investigation, because it's no easy thing to prosecute a former President (it's "un-presidented!) and he had to strike the proper note in so doing...but releasing this partisan hack job of 300+ pages, when Pence was cleared with a brief one page report (that wasn't released, I note).
What a crappy way to thank the guy who gave Garland a job after McConnell ghosted him for the SCOTUS position.
I think it is his scrupulousness and his general bienveillance (itтАЩs one of the descriptions of Biden and I only can think of the French) that got him the job. He has tried to be totally apolitical after TrumpтАЩs totally political AG (remember the Muller report?) and it causes all of us to quake, but on the whole, no bodyтАЩs perfect and he has used his best judgment which IтАЩm betting will turn out ok in the end.
I admit, if Garland had edited that report, the fact that the report had been redacted even to a minor degree would been sure to leak, and it would have been even worse if it had hit the news cycle in that fashion...so yeah.
Garland certainly has a scrupulous, cautious temperament--and truly, he would have been ideally suited to a judicial position. Garland should have been Associate Justice Garland and we would all have better off. I have no doubt that Garland tries to be apolitical but on the other hand, if that is so, why then did he give that special counsel job to someone who had worked in the Trump administration not once, but twice? I'm still on the fence about Garland's reasoning, to be honest.
Bill, I wrote to Garland because I want him to hear how displeased people in the public are about Hur! He should get the info. and get that the optics are exactly what they are. If enough people call for Hur's removal it will put pressure on them to remove him. I can only speak for myself.
Hur is a Trump appointee. He was kept on because Justice is supposed to be apolitical. Remember all those guys who threatened to quit Justice after Trump wanted to make the environmental lawyer AG? Hur is behaving like a mole in a spy novel!
Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama, helped craft the special counsel regulations in the 1990s, as a young Justice Department lawyer. Katyal said officials at the time expected that most special counsel reports would not be made public, given long-standing Justice Department guidelines to not comment when prosecutors decline to indict someone.
But thatтАЩs changed in recent years. In 2019, special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIтАЩs investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election helped establish a new norm: Reports would be made public, in an effort to demonstrate transparency and that an investigation was thorough and fair.
Katyal, citing his own role in creating the special counsel rules, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post that year saying MuellerтАЩs report should be released so that the public would тАЬhave confidence that justice was done.тАЭ
On Friday, Katyal questioned HurтАЩs decision to include BidenтАЩs alleged mental lapses during hours of interviews, including that he could not remember the year his son Beau died of cancer and struggled to recall the years of his vice presidency (Biden angrily denied those characterizations after the report was released).
тАЬPerhaps there was some justification for special counsel Hur to comment on the presidentтАЩs age and mental fitness, but I severely doubt it, and the report is not reassuring in this regard,тАЭ Katyal said in an email. тАЬIt seems gratuitous and wrong.тАЭ
Does that mean that Garland cannot come out and publicly say, our department does not approve of the unsolicited remarks about Biden's mental fitness? There was no official memory assessment, and in school psychology one would never make a diagnosis without an assessment. An all day interrogation while someone is handling a crisis is not legitimate memory assessment. https://www.who.int/news/item/29-09-2016-discrimination-and-negative-attitudes-about-ageing-are-bad-for-your-health
His ageism should be commented on and called out by Garland and we the public should be assured that this is not the standard that the Department of Justice upholds.
My question too. And now that Hur has proven heтАЩs a political hack, can Garland not assign him any work and essentially set him out to pasture until he can release him after the election? Garland has been a huge disappointment- taking so long to move against Trump and the insurrection.
This article helped somewhat to understand the circumstances and rationale for publishing the report as written. My favorite comment so far about this was тАЬHe couldnтАЩt indict him legally so he indicted him politicallyтАЭ
No. Justice is not supposed to be political as Trump made it. As a former judge, Garland may have been over cautious, but once the January 6th committee got Justice on the ball, itтАЩs been ok. ItтАЩs we Americans who are IMPATIENT. And we have courts that are doing their best to remain evenhanded even in the face of putinists. Not easy. ItтАЩs the people who MUST NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP or any congress person who voted not to accept the election (3:00 am January 7th). ItтАЩs up to us if the courts havenтАЩt nabbed him before November!!!
Bill, initially I thought the same. But then I thought back to Barr and his redacting/mischaracterizing the Mueller report. Perhaps Garland thought to let the public see just what a hatchet job it is (because you KNOW that the right would have found out that Garland edited the report)
Good point, Barbara, tho would Hur be allowed (thinking institutional rules/regs) to release, share or talk (leak?) about to anyone outside the DOJ what was taken out of the report because it was deemed immaterial and prejudicial? Thinking that Garland himself not redacting info, but requiring his employee to re-write a flawed report as any leader/director/teacher/editor would do before тАЬpublishingтАЭ a work. Would be curious to know GarlandтАЩs actions on this front.
Thanks for the link. It does address some of our concerns and questions. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I think the Rs will go all hair on fire, and it will turn into another big nothingburger. Cheeto's inability to STFU has already bumped it from the top spot.
Relax Bill, the only people who are going to read that 'document' are folks like us who recognize the familiar smell. The maggats mind(?) is made up. It's better that those words were not suppressed, lest such be construed by the (R) as (D's) hiding stuff.Most maggats (R) can't read anyway.
I read a discussion in which it was said it was an internal memo and that Garland released the report to avoid his moles inside the department from lying about it.
Regarding the question of whether Biden's brain is turning into mashed potatoes, HCR retails the following talking point:
"If Biden was regularly misremembering obvious pieces of information or making other mistakes that suggested he was not up to the job, it would be in the press."
Ah yes, the press. In the words of former New York Times editor John Swinton:
""There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as independent press. You know it and I know it. ... The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. ... Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
You donтАЩt realize she meant exactly that, John? That the press would jump on and ride that horse for clicks and jollies? If more incidents of even non-toxic memory glitches - never mind serious ones- were occurring, we would be hearing about them all the time. You jus twist the commentary to fit your narrative, John, and you miss the actual point.
SOME trolls are so far out and so toxic that they can be ignored.
Some occasionally seem ALMOST rational, and I think the points they are trying to make need refutation.
I DO have to be careful not to over-engage with trolls, but sometimes a person is talking to the whole audience, not just the troll, and the info matters.
Good to keep in mind, though. Amplifying a trollтАЩs voice is not ideal тАж
Well, if THAT was your point, itтАЩs even dopier. You must think the тАЬpressтАЭ is monolithic on the side of liberals [ye, gads! THAT is a whopper!], because the actual point тАФ that if they had the raw material to roast Joe, theyтАЩd DO IT тАФ is in evidence every minute of every day in the anti-liberal halls of some of the press.
{Yeah, I think there are liberal biases AND conservative biases out there in media land тАж thing is, >I< have evidence that both exist. Your point, John, would only hold water if there were no conservative-bias press outlets. Ho, hahaha ha! ThatтАЩs a laugh.}
Perhaps intellectually dihonest to not draw out this debunking story from the same article you quoted? We all now know exactly how honest you are:
тАЬI got email from Jay Salter, one of my readers, who had come across the John Swinton vignette in my "Other Voices" section. He forwarded it to a journalist's discussion area, asking for feedback.
тАЬOne journalist there, Jeff McMahon, made this response to Jay:
тАЬтАШYeah, I'll take that bait.
"тАЩThe last time I saw that phony quote Swinton was identified as the "chief of staff" of the New York SUN, the date was 1853, and where it now says "I am paid weekly," it then said "I am paid $150 a week." Which is, actually, about how much I made in journalism.
тАЬтАШThen some liar realized that newspapers don't have chiefs of staff, at least the editorial departments don't, and if you're going to lie you might as well do it big, so they made him the EDITOR IN CHIEF of the New York TIMES in NINETEEN 53. Unfortunately, the editor of the New York Times in 1953 was Turner Catledge.
"тАЩSo, the quote itself betrays a need for journalists because otherwise people who spread such propaganda might go unchecked.тАЭ
Is there a Google Add-On that allows you to search for scribblings from clearly unbalanced or unhinged opinion writers? You seem to find them so easily as support for your own preposterous opinions.
Substack Inc's California contract violation reported and exhibit made for their counsel. All California contracts have a duty of good faith & fair dealing which includes anything that to destroys the Readers' subscriptions, their contracts with Substack Inc. Reported.
Since he was appointed to handle the particular issue of document handling by Pence and the President, with that now concluded, is he still even an employee of the DOJ?
No Mike Mr. HUR is not a DOJ employee but, HUR does report to Merrick Garland & is the DOJ AG that many have noted including me is ultimately responsible legally for reviewing & the scope of publication under DOJ regulations & the Special Counsel law. Many have observed we have a
'Comey 2".
Meanwhile it is Saturday in Southeast Tennessee so the Troll is up at the 36 minute mark.Generally, I have 'reported' trolling under the express written terms of Substack's 2023 Terms of Use (TOU) & Substack Inc's new "Guidelines" which are express written representations to "Readers' & 'Authors" which can be mediated at JAMS SF in California unless Substack's counsel can figure out an escape path from their chosen Mediation forum & their own choice of California law.
I suspect that the WH concluded that it would be better to have the unredacted report come out now, rather than leaking piecemeal closer to the election. GarlandтАЩs mistake was appointing Hur in the first place. Why are the special counsels always republicans?
That's the new rule: Democrats get investigated by Republicans, and Republicans get investigated by........other Republicans. Gee, sounds fair to me /s.
I agree, KR. I thought at the time it was a mistake to appoint Hur as special counsel. Is it that Dems bend over backwards to appear to be playing fair? Or perhaps Garland was thinking Republicans would not accept the special counsel's report if it had been done by a Democrat? I don't know, but it was a bad decision for whatever reason.
Maybe when there is an important matter of potentially partisan or political nature in future it should be investigated by three Special Counsels or Prosecutors, one from each party and one avowed independent, and the report signed off by all or, as with other legal cases in which there is disagreement among the judges, have an opinion (can hardly call this piece of dreck a "report", due to obvious bias) written by each, laying out facts and conclusions.
You've got that right. I hope the first thing Biden does when he starts his second term is to fire Casper Milquetoast. He has been a disaster as AG. While Jack Smith has been a brilliant choice, it shouldтАЩve been made much earlier but dithering Milquetoast was too busy avoiding the awful truth of TrumpтАШs traitorous actions.
Well KR, certainly on the surface, to avoid the appearance of being biased. Let's also face the unfulfilling fact that many of those (R)'s we term "maga-t's" are sincere in their beliefs (regarding #45, etc). And, to accuse them of being unpatriotic is not a nice thing to do..., like who are we? So, "appearance" counts, bigly.
Hi, Bryan - where do I find the TOU and "Guidelines" so that I can join in the condemnation of the way that particular troll expresses himself/itself (still not convinced it's a person rather than a bot)? I genuinely have no problem with alternative points of view, but I find it offensive that this troll cuts and pastes his/its comments several times in whatever thread he/it is responding to, and the ad hominem attacks against the opinions expressed in the Letters and the Comments deeply offensive. It wastes time and bandwidth, and frequently derails the discussion into trivial irrelevancies.
Thanks for posting this Christy. It answered some of my head-scratching confusion & questions about how this report could be released w/ apparently immaterial comments/opinions.
Maybe less head scratching but, at least for me, no less frustration. The entire DOJ needs a lesson from Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Timothy Snyder (and maybe throw in a few historical psychiatrists like RJ Lifton or Bandy Lee) on how to prevent an autocratic takeover from within. Seems like holding firm to institutional policies in times of chaos should be basic.
Someone on MSNBC suggested that knowing he has moles in Justice, AG Garland May have preferred the whole report to the leaking of whatтАЩs driving everyone mad.
Biden is old and it is an issue in this election. That's a fact. Will I vote for him? You betcha. Would I favor Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer to be our candidate? Absolutely. [I'll be 84 on 1-20-2025] "Old Joe" has done one helluva job.
Absolutely. And if he has to step down, I am 100% comfortable with Kamala Harris. I almost laughed when Nikki Haley said that voting for Biden is voting for President Kamala Harris. That is the job of the Vice President, to be ready to step up. You have to be comfortable with both of them, and ready for both of them.
And imagine if BidenтАЩs last action as President, as a humanтАж was elevating a Black woman to the presidency. 74,000,000 MAGA heads would explode at once. тЬЛЁЯП╜ЁЯСйЁЯП╜тАНЁЯТ╝ЁЯдптАж and more importantly, make that feel entirely normal.
Harris can carry the freight from an intelligence and appearance standpoint. Not so Haley, Warren, Hillary, Lisa M, Bobear, or mtg. A person I've noticed is Jasmine Crocket (TX)..., intelligent, informed, well-spoken (meaning she speaks good English) with a Southern twang. Only thing lacking is time at temperature. Watch her.
I think that I can safely guarantee you and predict that Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from my home state of Texas is a rising star in the Democratic Party and will be a force with which to be reckoned. The swift-boating of Hillary Clinton, the most qualified person to ever run for the presidency, is an effective tool that the Republicans know how to use. Democrats need to seize upon the process and forget this bunk about "going high when they go low." Sorry, Michelle.
Hur's brazen dirty political attack on Biden is deplorable--whatever happened to the notion of the esteemed elder sage? Lay off the ageism thing and stirring the pot, Hur! We're all taking this personally--I'm 72 and starting a new job next week....
I have my eye on Dan Goldman, D-Rep. NY, for 2028.
I agree with Richard. And I will support Joe Biden, but I do think that the Democratic Party and Joe Biden need a plan B. I am 78, and I know that things can change in a heartbeat. This election and its violent aftermath is going to require focus on the issues and democracy.
And Dems drag their feet when it comes to pushing forward promising candidates for high office while the party occupies the Oval Office. We тАЬelect and forgetтАЭ when we win the presidency.
Well said Richard. I am close to Trumps age. And as my Dad said just before he died: "Your body might hurt, but you never feel 'old' in your head". And that is at the core of our problem.
Newsom and Whitmer's generation should be driving the car. We are pulling a "Victoria" or "Queen Elizabeth". Our generation has been too long in the saddle.
But I am still "Ridin' with Biden" unless he does the LBJ. It is still early. On March 31, 1968 Johnson announced he wouldn't be running for re-election. If Joe read the tea leaves, he would do the same.
And within minutes, a dozen or more highly qualified Democratic candidates for president would emerge and election democracy would move rapidly to establish a new contender.
But Vote Blue no Matter Who - or democracy dies an awful death.
A couple things could happen, Bill, for Biden to retire.
First, least likely (due to time) -- criminal conviction of the fat, orange-make-up caked, diapered insurrectionist-in-chief. But conviction could come before Republican convention, and could force delegates to the shock of seeing that conviction combined with sudden awareness of their incredibly bad record on getting anything done for the public. Disaster looming for all in November.
Second, the nine justices of the Supreme Court could realize they'd all taken oath to defend the Constitution, and that its article 14, section three obliges them unanimously to order insurrectionist-in-chief immediately and permanently off the ballot in all 50 states.
Well Kamala Harris has been an apprentice to one of the best Presidents weтАЩve been fortunate enough to have these last 4 years, so I am thrilled to stick with Joe and the administration he has built.
I for one am SHOCKED that the R's have yet to say the quiet part about this out loud on this one yet. Not only a woman, but a black woman as president? The wailing, the rending of cloth, the dispairing that will ensue! They will set their own money on fire to prove she's unfit.
What I find thrilling and ironic is that the last group to get the right to vote (Black females) are the ones leading the charge to save our democracy. Judge Chutkan, AG Leticia James, DA Fani Willis, Congresswomen Lee and Crockett, Stacey Abrams, and more.
Being 82, there is old & then there is old! Some age like fine wine, like Pres Biden & others age much younger & become brittle & broken. Do "woke" people age like fine wine & the me me me people just become sour grapes? I am playing pickle ball today.
True, age is in many instances relative. No one comes close to guessing my age. Still, it is an issue for many and the Republicans will swift boat it to high heaven while ignoring their demented criminal candidate.
A long (and boring) documentary could be made of the many тАЬI donтАЩt recall nowтАЭ under oath responses of GOP members in recent times of recent events.
The ire at Garland has always been misdirected. Hur had a credible record - until now.
This is on Hur. Angling for a Trump lifetime appointment or a nomination at best or a Scalia Law School appointment at the wholly Charles Koch owned George Mason Univ.
James Lankford upholding coming to consensus through reasoned debate in negotiating the border bill.
Ken Buck consistently
criticizing MAGA.
Susan Collins supporting the aid supplemental. Of course, making a case for the military industrial complex (google Bath Iron works) but still mopping the floor with Mike Lee (always a good thing) and moving the bill forward for debate (a better thing.)
And Ilya Somin - Professor of Law at the Scalia Law School of the wholly Charles Koch George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute - coming out for keeping Trump off the ballot. (Colorado should've gotten him to argue the case.)
We need a lot more of that to erode the Trump phenomenon тАжbut it can be done. They need to care about their country and break the oligarchтАЩs powerтАжThey can still champion conservative issues and support conservative agendas, but in the interest of governing, not taking over and subverting our constitution ( a la, the Project 2025).
Even pearl-clutching Susie Collins can see that the chickens are starting to come home to roost. She may sound like she's an ancient but she's the same age as I am and we aren't decrepit yet! Or at all.
Sadly, it seems like EVERY Republican is running scared of the Orange Juggernaut. I keep thinking they could be rid of his oppressive control over them if they were to reject him en masse. In short time, his blather would wear thin and his power would fade.
But it is not the тАЬtoolтАЭ Trump that Republicans are running from. It is the money people whose behind-the-curtain hands wield that tool. The conservative money guys - call тАШem oligarchs? - have a long-term plan for cementing power, and they are the ones actually calling the shots.
As long as The Tool keeps spouting the conservative agenda, the oligarchs will hold onto him and the people they have in place to enact that agenda will be kept in line.
You would think that if some of these conservatives actually went to Washington to govern in a democratic system, and NOT to enact a long-term тАЬtake-over,тАЭ they would try to help break this stranglehold that makes our country look so inept and ludicrous on the world stageтАж
100% on target. He would be easy to ditch but follow the money, and he doesn't have enough. It's a scam game that repubs have signed on to at the price of any human characteristics. A whole pascal of Dorian Grays.
Yes, Jeri. And Dems need to deal with the real power threat .. defeat Trump and UNDO the power that SCOTUS gave to oligarchs. Not EASY, but not complicated, either. Put some real energy behind undoing Citizens United. And resist the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.
Please recall a bunch of other causalities creating Citizens United.
The Powell in 1971 memo set up the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, and all the rest.
They arranged the offshoring of those millions of American working class jobs. They fixed alliances between unscrupulous U.S. billionaires
and murderous dictators, oligarchs abroad.
But before that -- all through the 1970s -- they killed the humanities in American schools, so elites would not reference what American artists could and did see happening.
YES, this has been a desperate desire of oligarchy since the New Deal was passed. They used the communist menace to tar anyone who spoke of the common good, and by the 70s, and especially the 80s, they were getting up a head of steam. By then, a new generation had reached adulthood that had NOT come through the Depression and was not primed to understand what the New Deal meant to everyday laborers and people living on what they earned, week to week, month to month. And with that lack of cultural memory, itтАЩs tougher to get voters to fullly grasp what the oligarchs want to get us back to тАж the Gilded Age, if not all the way back to Lords of the Manor and serfs who need to be grateful for what they get.
I don't remember a time when Dems were cutthroat.. I remember many times when they should have been. Even in the 70's, they didn't take advantage of Nixon's treachery.
ThereтАЩs a recording of a phone conversation between LBJ and Nixon about NOT revealing Republican treachery for fear of creating a public firestorm just before the 1968 election ( regarding Republicans destroying the Paris Peace talks that would have stopped the fighting in Vietnam before the election - in 1968, six years of war and death and many horrors would have been prevented, but the RтАЩs scuttled it to put Nixon in office тАФ and Johnson says it happened and Nixon admits it did, and NO ONE did anything about it ever ..
We think NixonтАЩs big crime was Watergate. HAH! Not even close. It was sneaking into the presidency on Dirty Tricks, including prolonging the Vietnam War and the destruction of so many lives here and abroad for Six More Years before cutting and running.
Talk about Democrats NOT holding Republican bad actors to account!
Reagan's anti-Union shenanigans. The NRA. Iran-Contra, the Florida vote that put Dubya over the top, ignoring Al Qaeda before 9/11, invading Iraq, torture, black sites, Trump!
Hard as it is to remember those treacherous times, we need to. Chump learned from the masters. Wish LBJ had made a big stink. Of course, I remember 1968. It reminds me of today. Time to make sure we don't have fifty more years of hell.
We heard challenges and denials about those Peace Talks for decades! George HW was alleged to have been a part of it {he was in intelligence services and clandestine operations before he became a politician тАФ worked with Bill Barr, as a matter of fact}. But it was always denied. The recordings confirming it were not made public for fifty years тАж But the recording exists and IтАЩve heard it. Makes me sick to my stomach. So does so much of the other death-dealing that has gone on. {And I KNOW Democrats are not innocent of sending people overseas to cause mayhem. That all matters. But RIGHT NOW, I am talking about dismantling our very democracy. We will not get a chance to lean on Democrats OR Republicans to do better in the future, if we let the conservative oligarchy take over our government тАФ if anyone still does not know what they plan, theyтАЩre not keeping it a secret. Read their Project 2025.}
You are so right, I read that LBJ knew before the election in 1968. The Dems have never been able to match the machinations of the repubs. But I just thought repubs were elitists. I'm sort of for the underdog mostly. Now the underdogs go for the bullly/billionaires. Propaganda most assuredly works.
Fifty years after the fact, proof of what the Republicans did to destroy HumphreyтАЩs chances of being elected was made public. A recording of LBJ taking to Dick Nixon, saying outright that the Democrats know the Paris Peace Talks were undermined at the very point at which an agreement was to be signed.
LBJ said the administration knew the South Vietnamese were promised theyтАЩd get a better deal if Nixon was elected, so they were advised by a faction supporting NixonтАЩs election not to sign the peace accord. LBJ said that is the only reason they would refused to sign the agreement they had negotiated. It was mere days before the election, and it would have made the Democrats look so good, it seemed Humphrey would be a shoo in. Nixon says тАШyes.тАЩ
Instead, the talks fell apart, and Nixon was elected.
LBJ, on that recording several days before the election, said he was afraid that he would ignite a firestorm nationally, if he brought out the truth, and Nixon says тАШyes.тАЩ
LBJ says what was done to those peace talks was treason. Nixon says тАШyes.тАЩ
LBJ says he knows Nixon now has the election sewed up, so it would be NixonтАЩs job to deal with the traitors. Nixon says тАШyes.тАЩ
The treason was not brought out, Nixon was elected, and he prolonged and expanded the war for six more years of death and destruction in small foreign lands, fought by our soldiers who were mostly young {average age 19, if memory serves, as opposed to 26 in WWII} and/or from, shall we say, тАЬless privilegedтАЭ demographics.
That is now HISTORY about the LBJ/Nixon era тАж not conjecture.
Thank you for this. Knew about Nixon and Anna Chenault but didn't know the extent of Nixon's treachery for many years. Makes one wonder how deep the China connection was. A national firestorm would have been preferable to what has transpired. And a firestorm still seems inevitable.
Ya think? I think Garland knew exactly what he was doing. As HCR pointed out, this makes the Republicans look like the assholes they are. And Faux News has been implicated as well, which is even better.
The 25% of the MAGANAZIs eat this BS up. But what about the 75% that find it abhorrent?
Will any of the maggots, including those at faux news, take the time and trouble first to read and consider calmly all 300-odd pages of the report and then be capable of parsing it and distinguishing factual statements and conclusions from opinions? Even the Grey Lady seems to fail at the attempt, as I count seven articles about the report, a "protective White House", and stepping aside due to age, on the "front page" of today's digital issue. https://www.nytimes.com/
Lynn- Fox and the Republican Congresscritters and Senators will select one or two sentences from the 300 pages and run with each one on consecutive days. We've seen it before we will see it again.
But that is exactly what all the dems are doing, Tinfoil.
You cant get angry because I said the emperor was naked.
If everybody here agrees on everything and somebody says something a bit different it doesn't necessarily mean they are angry... even if it makes you angry.
'In real life,' Trump and his insurrection partners lucked out with the meekest of AG's. Chalk that up to Biden, who is also none too happy with having picked Merrick Garland to head the Justice Department.
'The report from special counsel Robert Hur ultimately cleared Biden of any charges stemming from his handling of classified documents that were found at BidenтАЩs think tank and his home. But HurтАЩs explanation for not bringing charges тАФ that Biden would have persuaded the jury that he was a forgetful old man тАФ upended the presidential campaign and infuriated the White House.' (Politico)
'Biden and his closest advisers believe Hur went well beyond his purview and was gratuitous and misleading in his descriptions, according to those two people, who were granted anonymity to speak freely. And they put part of the blame on Garland, who they say should have demanded edits to HurтАЩs report, including around the descriptions of BidenтАЩs faltering memory.'
'In White House meetings, aides have questioned why Garland felt the need to appoint a special counsel in the first place, though Biden has publicly said he supported the decision.'
'While Biden himself has not weighed in on GarlandтАЩs future, most of the presidentтАЩs senior advisers do not believe that the attorney general would remain in his post for a possible second term, according to the two people.'
тАЬThis has been building for a while,тАЭ said one of those people. тАЬNo one is happyтАЭ
'Frustration within the White House at Garland has been growing steadily.'
'Last year, Biden privately denounced how long the probe into his son was taking, telling aides and outside allies that he believed the stress could send Hunter Biden spiraling back into addiction, according to the same two people. And the elder Biden, the people said, told those confidants that Garland should not have eventually empowered a special counsel to look into his son, believing that he again was caving to outside pressure.'
'In recent weeks, President Biden has grumbled to aides and advisers that had Garland moved sooner in his investigation into former President Donald TrumpтАЩs election interference, a trial may already be underway or even have concluded, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss private matters. That trial still could take place before the election and much of the delay is owed not to Garland but to deliberate resistance put up by the former president and his team.' (Politico) See link below.
Good info Fern. My amateur take on Garland is that he is fair minded, rooted in a careful interpretation of the law - he acts like a judge.
I would have preferred that he act like a prosecutor. Trump could have been arrested and charged in 2021. And he certainly could have been jailed once the scope of the Mar A Lago top secret documents theft became evident.
For clarity, I use this question: "If I had taken thousands of top secret documents from the White House - shown them around, stored them in a bathroom where they could be taken or viewed - if I had done that, what would my fate have been?" I suspect I would be in prison. And if not, I probably couldn't be elected dog catcher.
And if I watched a riot/rebellion/invasion of the Capitol TV - as a public official with authority over thousands of people in uniform and I ignored phone calls pleading with me (with all the power I had) to stop the violence and restore order - and I had done nothing for almost 3 hours...what would my fate be?
AG Garland has been negligent from day one. I wish Kamala Harris had had the job then. The trials could have been completed by now.
I totally agree, Bill. I think Biden was gifting Garland with the DOJ job to make up for what Mitch did to him, stealing from him what would have been the perfect job for someone of his intelligence and temperament. And I've also always thought Kamala Harris would be a terrific DOJ. We're on the same page.
The report is transparently egregious, an exercise in character assassination. Biden's and the Dems counterplay was well played. They had all their ducks lined up, quack quack MAGA
Annabel, I have a question: Why didnтАЩt Merrick Garland make Hur follow department policy to not discuss the investigation into someone that they do not plan to charge then or after they leave the presidency? Once again, rules about reporting on a finished or ongoing investigation have been broken (Comey was the first when he disclosed an ongoing investigation into Clinton while remaining quiet about an investigation into RussiaтАЩs interference/ties to TrumpтАЩs campaign).
If I were BidenтАЩs staff, IтАЩd add him to the daily briefing (daily for the next two weeks, then weekly until the election) with 1 question apiece from 5 reporters answered each time (determined by drawing a number to eliminate questions of bias).
It appears the entire Republican Party has lost any sense of integrity. The entire Party seems to have taken on the ethos and mentality of its leader. A once great Party disgraces itself every day. Sad!
James Carville was on Smerconish this am. James asked how it was that that far right attorney was given the investigation into Biden's docs. And why 14 of 15 special counsels were Republicans. He asked, aren't there any Democrat lawyers in Washington? My question is how the hell was Hur even able to release that hit job. Doesn't that stuff get reviewed? What the hell is Merrick Garland even doing there. https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/02/10/smr-carville-on-dems-after-special-counsel-fallout.cnn
Unpacking the special prosecutor's report: "I have absolutely nothing. But that won't stop me from taking a thoroughly partisan and inappropriate swipe at the president".
My Mom is batting a .248 on getting the right name of the celebrity actor that was in that movie from however many years ago. She has never referred to my doctor by the right name, and today called Chapstick a utensil. (We were having Chinese food). On the other hand, she spent the week filing all the paperwork to apply for Medicare, helping her sister with my Grandma's estate, and helping my brother switch *his* healthcare, with nary an error made. Everyone trusts her to do this more than anyone, which is strange because I guess she's clearly senile.
My Dad had a long conversation with me tonight about the various federal court immunity cases. He mixed up the states involved and couldn't remember the names of 1 or 2 of the Justices, but had a full grasp of all the concepts and reminded me of a few theories I was unaware of. Go figure. He had the day off from his foreign trade paralegal job, which requires he communicate with multiple countries on all continents over sensitive matters, where any mistake he makes could cost someone a million dollars despite the fact that the original documents are in languages he does not speak and everyone is on a different timezone and working under differing sets of law. The other day he said El Salvador when he meant Ecuador, so I don't know why they still trust him to do that job, because I guess he's clearly senile.
Come to think of it, I probably can't judge this. Not because I don't have a medical degree, but because *I* am clearly senile too. I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday (eggs? fish?... carrots??). I don't know what date my dentist appointment is off the top of my head, how many weeks it has been since the last one, what the name of the street the office's address is, what MY address was in college, 98% of what I learned in college, or what year I started taking classes again. It's only going to get worse. I should see if I can get on disability before I hurt someone!
For lord's sake, the President is an old man. He makes embarrassing verbal slips, including some doozies this week. I know most of us here are fans, but let us not sugar coat this. He's *always* been a gaffe machine, and there is no way it was going to get better with age. However, that is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to his experience, knowledge, temperament, and abilities to make tough decisions and carry out his duties. As a citizen, I am satisfied with his accomplishments and feel he shares my values, which is why I will be supporting him again. His opponent also is an old man who makes embarrassing verbal slips. My opposition to him is not because of these whoopsies, but because everything he says and does on purpose is absolutely damnable and psychotic.
I am so deeply tired of this shallow bullsh!t, I cannot tell you guys.
What an astutely, perceptive commentary of real life! The older we all get, the more real knowledge we carry with us. Some of it gets garbled in the verbal retelling. But what never changes is a personтАЩs character. I think we have plenty of evidence that speaks clearly to the character of President Biden and the lack there of in former President Trump. Whether or not you even agree with his politics, there is not one ounce of evidence that President Biden will ever, under any circumstances, stray from his oath to the US Constitution. Conversely, we all know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that Trump has no integrity, whatsoever, and will burn the Constitution as soon as he is given the chance. He tried to do it before and he and his cohorts are hell bent on usurping our constitutional republic once and for all in this next election. Integrity be damned!
I pray that Liz Cheney is not the only Republican with a spine who is willing to support the Constitution despite party politics, knowing this election will be the deciding factor between democracy or fascism. We cannot allow Trump anywhere near the oval office ever again!
And Adam Kinsinger. That"s two...
And my Republican partner who said last nite he can no longer be Republican.....changing to Independent.
Our next door neighbor, an ex R pol who is now an Independent, but votes mostly D. He can't stand what the R party has become.
Are the RтАЩs finally removing their heads from tRumpтАЩs butt?
Not members of the MAGA cult. We have several R neighbors and none of them voted for death star even the first time. Only wing nuts buy the nonsense. For many of the death star speaks to their prejudices and fear and for some, their fundamental "Christianity."
An R friend of mine was upset with me for asking her whether she voted for Trump. Her response to me was: I am a republican but he doesn't represent me. That's not how I feel.
Her response alone confirmed to me what I had already thought and said since 2016. What trump says and does resonates with his supporters (to some degree). And now we see them.
I do know some Rs who can't stand him.
Unfortunately, even those who hate Trump vote for him because clearly the R platform matters more than the county's leader.
I have 3 sisters, life long RтАЩs. Two have switched to DтАЩs and one to an I. My brothers are TrumperтАЩs. IтАЩm a life long pragmatic D.
What was the tipping point, Kathy?
I think I accidentally answered you above.......not in the correct place. My age, .....sigh.
Bravo!
About time!!!!
YES!!!!
I somewhat agree with you, MayPat. However, IMO there is a difference. Ms. Cheney is in front of the TV cameras speaking loudly and frequently to the nation about the dangers of allowing Trump and Co. back in the White House.
IтАЩve been reading Adam KinsingerтАЩs Substack messages for a couple months now and I would describe his message delivery as more like speaking quietly behind his hand so only the persons on either side of him actually hear what heтАЩs saying. His messages clearly say (complain?) that RтАЩs are not standing up to Trump, RтАЩs are no longer attempting to govern in a moderate, center-right manner, RтАЩs are embarrassing themselves. RтАЩs are sadly succumbing to the fear of MAGA retaliation and threats by either going along with the тАЬfreedom caucusтАЭ or тАЬretiringтАЭ from political office. (Adam went so far as too physically relocate his family to Texas because of harassment in his home State of Illinois). I havenтАЩt seen any statements crediting the current administration for its great work and accomplishments. Just criticism of what RтАЩs are doing or not doing.
Interestingly, just a few days ago he actually ran his own survey to gauge who was reading his Substack - the responders were overwhelmingly Democrats. Very few identified as RтАЩs or former RтАЩs or even Independents. His own survey proved that his message is not reaching the audience who needs to hear what he is trying to say. His commentary strikes me as a sad lament of what other RтАЩs could or should do to stop Trump from regaining office.
Yes, you make excellent and important points. Just sounds like he found a new choir, us Dems. But when I watched his podcast with Mary Trump and Katie Couric (yes Dems) I felt some hope
https://youtu.be/37mnCQrQmYo?si=RLTHpVPhSPpq6vMO.
As the Repblican party splits, he is speaking to those moderates.
Maybe out of the steam here but as someone said: "a vote is a chess move , not a valentine " Good to remember for R that hold their nose & vote for a D.
MaryPat, thank you SO much for linking this YouTube video!! What an impressive, informational conversation. It helped me realize Adam IS doing more, and perhaps being a louder voice, than I thought just from following his SubStack. I so appreciate your sharing this interview.
Question: have you read his book? Do you recommend?
Haven't read the book, but you just inspired me to order it Jan! Thanks. Happy Valentine's Day to me!
Well, it was the R's who tanked the immigration bill because dumb Donald wants to run on immigration as an issue. I cannot for the life of me, figure out how he thinks he has a winning hand on immigration since he tanked the possibility of passing some sort of immigration reform. Donald tRump is a dunce and a bully; he proves it every time he opens his mouth. The R's lack the nerve to take down tRump.
If trump was so good, why didn't he solve the problem when he was president? He did have some good ideas for the wall. Put solar panels on it. Make it transparent so drug smugglers could be caught throwing bags of drugs over the wall. He failed last time, hat makes everyone think he will succeed now. If he does, it will come at a terrible price.
Trump knows that his supporters are conditioned to believe lies, his and those on Fox and all the other hard-right news outlets.
Romney hired private security people. With that, Jan 6th, and the threats to the juries and judges, one would surmise that trumpers are violent. Not all but it only takes one bullet to kill someone.
Chris Christie also ~
And the Lincoln Project people, and Michael Steele.
Thank you Carol Ann Bishop.
Let me intercede here... Donny J. frump is the Repub's chosen poster boy, even with all his baggage, leaving the once proud GOP rudderless. Of course the Repub Party is in a world of hurt too. But there is hope for the politcians of that bent; Liz Cheney. As a lifelong member of the Democrat Party I have to continue to wonder when the fools will wake up. Likely not even after the end of 2024. Sad.
Amen!
Excellent comment -thanks.
And @Will, from Cal, donтАЩt forget about his team. I trust the people BIden has around him. I trust that they are driven by policy, not power. (Often to our short-term detriment.) I trust that the Continuity of Government will steady the ship should Biden, in his second term, have a тАЬMitch McConnell moment.тАЭ
Behind the scenes, Harris stands where I stand on Dobbs and Jobs and THATтАЩs what matters.
Ooh! тАЬDobbs and jobsтАЭ is excellent. IтАЩll remember that. I hope you donтАЩt mind being quoted!
Dobbs and Jobs !!!
Biden saved America's soul
Steal! Shout and Share.
My favorite articulation is
DEMS MAKE LIFE BETTER
Will, excellent post!! "Shallow" is the best word to describe the Republicans who have no depth of character or integrity. Your comments are so applicable to many people I know, including me. :) When I was teaching, I'd often get so stressed by everything that was expected of me, that I couldn't remember students' names, or what committee meeting I should be attending, or my mind would wander to more peaceful times. I found myself staring out the window more than the children. I was told that I was a very good teacher, and I see former students who thank me for motivating them. ( I knew when it was time to stop teaching, and I'm sure that President Biden will know when it is time to stop being president.) Which is to say, as you said, that people can be very competent and accomplish wonderful things and still get confused. ("Why did I come into this room?") I read somewhere that stress is a great contributor to forgetfulness. If anyone has a right to be stressed it's President Biden.
People who criticize him and overlook Trump's idiiotic blunders are "pancake people"--a lot of surface area but not much depth.- shallow.
I would say "evil" is the best word to describe today's R along with "soulless". They are clearly the party of death, guided only by lust for power, greed, and political theater. They know they have nothing for ordinary people in this country.
I love that term "Pancake People"! SO appropriate!
ЁЯШК
Pam, I recall from a long ago SNL segment called тАЬsnigletsтАЭ the cobble-created word for wondering why you walked into a roomтАж.they named it тАЬdestinasiaтАЭ. I have been using it ever since because it is SO apt!
"Destinasia"- I Love it!!
It is infuriating that the MSM will spend hours or column inches carping on President Biden's gaffes (which are nothing new) and gaps, yet say nothing about the truly insane thing Trump says on a daily basis. Yesterday he again told his most egregious lie: that he went to World Trade Center on the day. He added a new twist, that it was 7/11 (seven eleven), not 9/11. I might be biased but I do think that getting the date of the most memorable attack on US soil wrong is more concerning than confusing Mexico and Egypt.
I agree!! I can't stand to even see Trump's face, much less hear his whiny voice. He is truly sickening to me, but apparently some people would rather see and hear a lunatic, then see and hear a man with integrity and compassion.
I just read the subtitles and quotes in articles. I can stand listening to him' I will say that he does not have a monotonous voice and expressive facial features. His eyes look so porcine to me. Ironically pigs will eat humans if given them chopped up.
Will, yesterday I had a productive discussion with an in-law who тАЬcanтАЩt vote for Trump but is very concerned about Biden because heтАЩs too oldтАЭ. 15 minutes later she was much much less concerned. One vote at a time, lets win this one vote at a time
We are all tired, but your contributions to the narrative are stellar. Be tired, keep at it. Blessings
I am SO with you, WillтАжI, too, get a touch of aphasia ( especially when stressed over the many difficult events of life that donтАЩt come anywhere near the stress of events Biden must shepherd the country through), but that has been going on since I was thirty years old, and it has nothing to do with competency (I have been a newspaper editor, EMT, and written nine non- fiction books and more articles than I can shake a stick at over that time .. and I am not even special, just living a life with an occasional touch of tip-of-the-tongue issues all of us get). I wish people understood how normal BidenтАЩs memory actually is, and how sick and twisted Donnie actually is.
тАЬI wish people understood how normal BidenтАЩs memory actually is, and how sick and twisted Donnie actually is.тАЭ
PERFECT!!! Thank you!!!
Great analogy.
I am just about Biden's age as is my husband. Sometimes neither one of us can remember a name or something else and then it comes to us when we aren't trying to remember. And I often have to concentrate on what I am doing a little more and yes, I have why am I in this room moments. Then I remember.
To me, the older you get, the more files you have. Files of information, facts, data, pictures, etc., along with so many memories. For many of us, including Joe Biden, it's just a matter of figuring out where you filed the piece of information you're looking for. It pops up, sometimes at 3am, but it's there, all stored. Additionally, you can refresh your memory with Google. And memory issues, to me, are not nearly as important as being vulnerable, laughing at yourself sometimes, being willing to learn new things, telling the truth and having integrity, and practicing kindness and compassion. And Joe Biden embodies those qualities.
Mona, exactly! This is how IтАЩve long described it to folksтАж.so much тАЬstuffтАЭ in my brainтАФlike an overstuffed file cabinetтАФto sift through to find the data IтАЩm after!!!!
When I have a lapse in memory or fail to find a word, I say my RAM is full. I've said that for the last 30 years!
For those who remember card catalogues: mine are full to bursting and sometimes I have trouble getting to the cards in the back.
Nicely put.
тАЬSometimes neither one of us can remember a name or something else and then it comes to us when we aren't trying to remember.тАЭ
This happens to all of us, regardless of age, as I learned in a sophomore year psychology course in college, 50+ years ago. ЁЯШЙ
Me, too, but I had those things when I was young, too. Like, a KID.
We CAN overdo this ageism thing. HeтАЩs up to the job. So is Kamala, but not everyone knows that much about her, except sheтАЩs a hard-nosed woman.
I like Kamala a lot. I was very confused as to why, at the beginning of the Biden/Harris administration, the Democrats were attacking her. I did find a reference to NYT Op Ed that said she wasn't a progressive prosecutor. I think these folks don't get how she sees her role in reforming criminal justice. In her book "The Truths We Hold," she states there is a common issue with false equivalency: you could either be tough on crime or soft on crime. She lists three examples, but I'll just give one. She said you can want the police to stop crime in your neighborhood and still be against them using excessive force.
Op Ed By Lara Bazelon saying not Progressive (BTW - Lara has changed her mind about Kamala Harris based on post-California activities
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Uk0.4wtA.sTINJuVdzoLf&smid=url-share
rebutted by a Letter to the Editor by Lateefah Simon
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/opinion/letters/kamala-harris-district-attorney-record.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Uk0.0PlQ.VbFZSGIecqeH&smid=url-share
Some complain about Kamala because she hasn't been more front and center in domestic politics, and Biden has not used her as a true partner. I beg to differ. He has given her intensive training in what one needs to know to be president. He gave her a foreign policy portfolio on immigration. He has given her opportunities to travel the world and meet world leaders and I imagine they have had subsequent conversations about what she learned. She went to the Climate Change conference this year and was in conversation with Arab leaders concerning the current crisis. She has been involved with Ukraine. She is being mentored by a very capable president to take his place. The current state of the world is such that I don't think he feels it is time to step back. I believe, he feels they'll navigate this better together, especially since some political operatives have done everything possible to discredit her in the public eye. Quite frankly, there are still too many Americans unwilling to accept a woman as president.
As long we remember what lever to push. lol
Thank you Will, Another fantastic post!
I nominate "Will, from Cal" to be President Biden's Press Secretary. Or how about "Communications Director". Speech writer, at least!
Will, you are wonderful with words. Even better with ideas.
I would like Will to be in charge of Democratic messaging this election cycle, then weтАЩll see whatтАЩs next for Will on the national scene!
Will, as always, you hit the nail on the head. I want to add - as I have before - letтАЩs not just compare these two men running for president; letтАЩs compare the cabinets, attorneys and advisors with which they have surrounded themselves. Do we really want Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Alina Habba or Mike Flynn anywhere near the seat of power? Making domestic or diplomatic decisions that impact our lives? I think not. Judge a man by his associates, not his age.
Will from Cal.....THANK YOU for saying so perfectly what I believe and have always thought about Biden. I believe he will go down in history as one of the best people's presidents since FDR.
He has my vote. He will always have my vote. Hur and the media be damned in their partisan shenanigans.
Ha! ThankYou for your wit making it easier for us to get out there and do the gravely serious work.
Thank you Will & Lin. Per David Hurtz' 2/8 'Talking Points Memo' (TPM) & despite being "optimistic & vigilant" David posted, "If fascism is a disease then the United States is vulnerable"
Good to know this LFAA Community is an able Trauma Center. Carry on all.
Hmmmm, Bryan, LFAA as a vaccine to boost our immunity against the fascism virus????!!!!
Some recall that I came to LFAA as a Life Skill remedy from 9 days of unconsciousness. When you think about ( & my docs did) HCR is much like a Trial Attorney -- scrupulous situational & historical context with citations posted on real-time history all under my neurologist's Motto:
"The neurons that fire together rewire together". : )
Bryan: Great line. What a catchy Substack motto that could be?
Sure, Biden has made verbal mistakes. But he never misidentified in a photo the woman he raped by saying she was his second wife, during a deposition. Or now owes said woman (E. Jean Carroll) $88.3 MILLION and amounting, with interest.
(That should be front and center of every response by allies of Joe Biden.)
And while there's still a government...
I am so glad your post was one of the first I read today. I was afraid I would first be confronted with the words of the trolls. Thank you
I'm so with you. Georgi. Nary a "t" so far. I just hope that folks just plain stop engaging.
With you 100%, Will, and thank you for putting into words what so many of us are feeling. I'd like to share your words if you don't mind.
There's memory foibles and then there are deteriorating mental abilities. I, too, suffer from the former (when will I ever remember to get the flashing to put on the side of my outdoor stairs to keep the stupid particle board from disintegrating) and have witnessed the latter in people who are in the throes of dementia or Alzheimer's. There are differences, people.
"There are differences, people."
My lord, YES! People refuse to stop conflating these things. They have the discernment of a grade school bully's sidekick, looking for any flaw just so they can yell "Haha, you're rEtArDeD!!!" from across the lunchroom. Elderly-man-who-said-a-word-wrong does not equal dementia sufferer. It is so insulting to anyone who has suffered. A person with actual dementia could not make it through a speech even with a teleprompter, much less negotiate with foreign leaders. If the President was senile, it would be *literally impossible* to cover it up.
Can't wait until we actually get our first female President and polls start asking whether the public is concerned with her fitness because some people think she's a bit shrill on certain days. Don't want her to PMS when she's talking to someone important!
Ditto!!
I have just written to the Justice Department saying that Hur should resign since his obvious ageism is a bias that is not fitting in a department that exists to enforce that we are just.
It's too late to dump Hur. My question is: Did AG Garland read that document before it was released? Did he approve that mess? Why didn't he demand that the statement stick to the facts and the decision? It's to be a legal explanation, not an editorial on ageism. Good grief. I try to be charitable to Garland. But I think he blew it again.
Exactly what I was wondering--Including personal comments in such a report is SUPPOSED to be strictly prohibited. Garland should have read it and edited those bits out.
I'm getting rather fed up with Garland's miss-steps. I was willing to give him a lot of room for the investigation, because it's no easy thing to prosecute a former President (it's "un-presidented!) and he had to strike the proper note in so doing...but releasing this partisan hack job of 300+ pages, when Pence was cleared with a brief one page report (that wasn't released, I note).
What a crappy way to thank the guy who gave Garland a job after McConnell ghosted him for the SCOTUS position.
I think it is his scrupulousness and his general bienveillance (itтАЩs one of the descriptions of Biden and I only can think of the French) that got him the job. He has tried to be totally apolitical after TrumpтАЩs totally political AG (remember the Muller report?) and it causes all of us to quake, but on the whole, no bodyтАЩs perfect and he has used his best judgment which IтАЩm betting will turn out ok in the end.
I admit, if Garland had edited that report, the fact that the report had been redacted even to a minor degree would been sure to leak, and it would have been even worse if it had hit the news cycle in that fashion...so yeah.
Garland certainly has a scrupulous, cautious temperament--and truly, he would have been ideally suited to a judicial position. Garland should have been Associate Justice Garland and we would all have better off. I have no doubt that Garland tries to be apolitical but on the other hand, if that is so, why then did he give that special counsel job to someone who had worked in the Trump administration not once, but twice? I'm still on the fence about Garland's reasoning, to be honest.
Garland should have told Hur to rewrite the report with just the facts and not his personal opinion.
THIS! Garland decided to release the report.
Bill, I wrote to Garland because I want him to hear how displeased people in the public are about Hur! He should get the info. and get that the optics are exactly what they are. If enough people call for Hur's removal it will put pressure on them to remove him. I can only speak for myself.
Garland is just as big of an impediment.
Glad you wrote to him. I share your rage. But Hur was hired as a one time thing. He's probably back to defending NFL dudes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/caileygleeson/2024/02/09/robert-hur-doj-special-counsel-who-criticized-bidens-memory-is-ex-trump-prosecutor-and-nfl-lawyer/?sh=2648d6b04a69
Hur is a Trump appointee. He was kept on because Justice is supposed to be apolitical. Remember all those guys who threatened to quit Justice after Trump wanted to make the environmental lawyer AG? Hur is behaving like a mole in a spy novel!
Garland was stuck. From this article (gifted) https://wapo.st/3Szxhm6
Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama, helped craft the special counsel regulations in the 1990s, as a young Justice Department lawyer. Katyal said officials at the time expected that most special counsel reports would not be made public, given long-standing Justice Department guidelines to not comment when prosecutors decline to indict someone.
But thatтАЩs changed in recent years. In 2019, special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIтАЩs investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election helped establish a new norm: Reports would be made public, in an effort to demonstrate transparency and that an investigation was thorough and fair.
Katyal, citing his own role in creating the special counsel rules, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post that year saying MuellerтАЩs report should be released so that the public would тАЬhave confidence that justice was done.тАЭ
On Friday, Katyal questioned HurтАЩs decision to include BidenтАЩs alleged mental lapses during hours of interviews, including that he could not remember the year his son Beau died of cancer and struggled to recall the years of his vice presidency (Biden angrily denied those characterizations after the report was released).
тАЬPerhaps there was some justification for special counsel Hur to comment on the presidentтАЩs age and mental fitness, but I severely doubt it, and the report is not reassuring in this regard,тАЭ Katyal said in an email. тАЬIt seems gratuitous and wrong.тАЭ
To Linda Weide: Please read what I wrote. ItтАЩs just above.
Does that mean that Garland cannot come out and publicly say, our department does not approve of the unsolicited remarks about Biden's mental fitness? There was no official memory assessment, and in school psychology one would never make a diagnosis without an assessment. An all day interrogation while someone is handling a crisis is not legitimate memory assessment. https://www.who.int/news/item/29-09-2016-discrimination-and-negative-attitudes-about-ageing-are-bad-for-your-health
His ageism should be commented on and called out by Garland and we the public should be assured that this is not the standard that the Department of Justice upholds.
My question too. And now that Hur has proven heтАЩs a political hack, can Garland not assign him any work and essentially set him out to pasture until he can release him after the election? Garland has been a huge disappointment- taking so long to move against Trump and the insurrection.
Eve, GarlandтАЩs horrendous delay put us where we are today. He is responsible for that. He needs to go now and frankly, should be investigated.
This article helped somewhat to understand the circumstances and rationale for publishing the report as written. My favorite comment so far about this was тАЬHe couldnтАЩt indict him legally so he indicted him politicallyтАЭ
https://wapo.st/49pwPhz
No. Justice is not supposed to be political as Trump made it. As a former judge, Garland may have been over cautious, but once the January 6th committee got Justice on the ball, itтАЩs been ok. ItтАЩs we Americans who are IMPATIENT. And we have courts that are doing their best to remain evenhanded even in the face of putinists. Not easy. ItтАЩs the people who MUST NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP or any congress person who voted not to accept the election (3:00 am January 7th). ItтАЩs up to us if the courts havenтАЩt nabbed him before November!!!
But Justice is supposed to be apolitical. He needed the January 6th Committee. Just be grateful to Nancy Pelosi!
Bill, initially I thought the same. But then I thought back to Barr and his redacting/mischaracterizing the Mueller report. Perhaps Garland thought to let the public see just what a hatchet job it is (because you KNOW that the right would have found out that Garland edited the report)
Good point, Barbara, tho would Hur be allowed (thinking institutional rules/regs) to release, share or talk (leak?) about to anyone outside the DOJ what was taken out of the report because it was deemed immaterial and prejudicial? Thinking that Garland himself not redacting info, but requiring his employee to re-write a flawed report as any leader/director/teacher/editor would do before тАЬpublishingтАЭ a work. Would be curious to know GarlandтАЩs actions on this front.
Edit: I just read a Politico article link posted down thread & it explained, mostly, some of the questions you/I posed (an interesting read): https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/garland-decision-release-hur-report-00140806#:~:text=Attorney%20General%20Garland%20made%20the,to%20the%20greatest%20extent%20possible
Thanks for the link. It does address some of our concerns and questions. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I think the Rs will go all hair on fire, and it will turn into another big nothingburger. Cheeto's inability to STFU has already bumped it from the top spot.
Relax Bill, the only people who are going to read that 'document' are folks like us who recognize the familiar smell. The maggats mind(?) is made up. It's better that those words were not suppressed, lest such be construed by the (R) as (D's) hiding stuff.Most maggats (R) can't read anyway.
I used to have the utmost respect for Garland. Now I think heтАЩs a long game trump mole.
Garland knew that if he cut the crap it would likely be leaked. Better to have us all screaming about Hur than about Him.
I read a discussion in which it was said it was an internal memo and that Garland released the report to avoid his moles inside the department from lying about it.
I thought the same thing. It wouldnтАЩt have taken long to see that garbage in the report and have it trashed!
Too many timesтАжand that worries me..a lot!
Regarding the question of whether Biden's brain is turning into mashed potatoes, HCR retails the following talking point:
"If Biden was regularly misremembering obvious pieces of information or making other mistakes that suggested he was not up to the job, it would be in the press."
Ah yes, the press. In the words of former New York Times editor John Swinton:
""There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as independent press. You know it and I know it. ... The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. ... Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
https://www.blatantpropaganda.org/propaganda/articles/journalists-are-intellectual-prostitutes-says-John-Swinton-of-the-New-York-Times.html
You donтАЩt realize she meant exactly that, John? That the press would jump on and ride that horse for clicks and jollies? If more incidents of even non-toxic memory glitches - never mind serious ones- were occurring, we would be hearing about them all the time. You jus twist the commentary to fit your narrative, John, and you miss the actual point.
IтАЩve got to know John. He searches for events and stories to augment his one-sided world.
Yes, so I have seen.
Please don't engage with trolls.
SOME trolls are so far out and so toxic that they can be ignored.
Some occasionally seem ALMOST rational, and I think the points they are trying to make need refutation.
I DO have to be careful not to over-engage with trolls, but sometimes a person is talking to the whole audience, not just the troll, and the info matters.
Good to keep in mind, though. Amplifying a trollтАЩs voice is not ideal тАж
No, you miss the point. The press is lying to cover up Corporate Joe's routine bloopers and moments of confusion.
Well, if THAT was your point, itтАЩs even dopier. You must think the тАЬpressтАЭ is monolithic on the side of liberals [ye, gads! THAT is a whopper!], because the actual point тАФ that if they had the raw material to roast Joe, theyтАЩd DO IT тАФ is in evidence every minute of every day in the anti-liberal halls of some of the press.
{Yeah, I think there are liberal biases AND conservative biases out there in media land тАж thing is, >I< have evidence that both exist. Your point, John, would only hold water if there were no conservative-bias press outlets. Ho, hahaha ha! ThatтАЩs a laugh.}
Ho ho back to you, laboring under the delusion that "Corporate Joe" Biden is anything other than a Vampire Liberal.
Now you are just trolling тАж
John,
Perhaps intellectually dihonest to not draw out this debunking story from the same article you quoted? We all now know exactly how honest you are:
тАЬI got email from Jay Salter, one of my readers, who had come across the John Swinton vignette in my "Other Voices" section. He forwarded it to a journalist's discussion area, asking for feedback.
тАЬOne journalist there, Jeff McMahon, made this response to Jay:
тАЬтАШYeah, I'll take that bait.
"тАЩThe last time I saw that phony quote Swinton was identified as the "chief of staff" of the New York SUN, the date was 1853, and where it now says "I am paid weekly," it then said "I am paid $150 a week." Which is, actually, about how much I made in journalism.
тАЬтАШThen some liar realized that newspapers don't have chiefs of staff, at least the editorial departments don't, and if you're going to lie you might as well do it big, so they made him the EDITOR IN CHIEF of the New York TIMES in NINETEEN 53. Unfortunately, the editor of the New York Times in 1953 was Turner Catledge.
"тАЩSo, the quote itself betrays a need for journalists because otherwise people who spread such propaganda might go unchecked.тАЭ
Tom, somebody in your spinster damage control department really made an ass of himself. Here is John Swinton's wikipedia page:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Swinton_(journalist)
Is there a Google Add-On that allows you to search for scribblings from clearly unbalanced or unhinged opinion writers? You seem to find them so easily as support for your own preposterous opinions.
You dismiss without engaging. I don't suppose you're willng to say what opinion of mine you find to be preposterous.
Substack Inc's California contract violation reported and exhibit made for their counsel. All California contracts have a duty of good faith & fair dealing which includes anything that to destroys the Readers' subscriptions, their contracts with Substack Inc. Reported.
Since he was appointed to handle the particular issue of document handling by Pence and the President, with that now concluded, is he still even an employee of the DOJ?
No Mike Mr. HUR is not a DOJ employee but, HUR does report to Merrick Garland & is the DOJ AG that many have noted including me is ultimately responsible legally for reviewing & the scope of publication under DOJ regulations & the Special Counsel law. Many have observed we have a
'Comey 2".
Meanwhile it is Saturday in Southeast Tennessee so the Troll is up at the 36 minute mark.Generally, I have 'reported' trolling under the express written terms of Substack's 2023 Terms of Use (TOU) & Substack Inc's new "Guidelines" which are express written representations to "Readers' & 'Authors" which can be mediated at JAMS SF in California unless Substack's counsel can figure out an escape path from their chosen Mediation forum & their own choice of California law.
I suspect that the WH concluded that it would be better to have the unredacted report come out now, rather than leaking piecemeal closer to the election. GarlandтАЩs mistake was appointing Hur in the first place. Why are the special counsels always republicans?
That's the new rule: Democrats get investigated by Republicans, and Republicans get investigated by........other Republicans. Gee, sounds fair to me /s.
I agree, KR. I thought at the time it was a mistake to appoint Hur as special counsel. Is it that Dems bend over backwards to appear to be playing fair? Or perhaps Garland was thinking Republicans would not accept the special counsel's report if it had been done by a Democrat? I don't know, but it was a bad decision for whatever reason.
Maybe when there is an important matter of potentially partisan or political nature in future it should be investigated by three Special Counsels or Prosecutors, one from each party and one avowed independent, and the report signed off by all or, as with other legal cases in which there is disagreement among the judges, have an opinion (can hardly call this piece of dreck a "report", due to obvious bias) written by each, laying out facts and conclusions.
Good suggestion, Lynn.
That sounds about right, Carol.
You've got that right. I hope the first thing Biden does when he starts his second term is to fire Casper Milquetoast. He has been a disaster as AG. While Jack Smith has been a brilliant choice, it shouldтАЩve been made much earlier but dithering Milquetoast was too busy avoiding the awful truth of TrumpтАШs traitorous actions.
Well KR, certainly on the surface, to avoid the appearance of being biased. Let's also face the unfulfilling fact that many of those (R)'s we term "maga-t's" are sincere in their beliefs (regarding #45, etc). And, to accuse them of being unpatriotic is not a nice thing to do..., like who are we? So, "appearance" counts, bigly.
Exactly, Madrussian. But the other side doesnтАЩt even pretend to be interested in impartiality - either the perception or the reality of it.
Thanks, Counselor. Where can I find those "2023 Terms of Use" and the "Guidelines"? I want to be using the right language.
Hi, Bryan - where do I find the TOU and "Guidelines" so that I can join in the condemnation of the way that particular troll expresses himself/itself (still not convinced it's a person rather than a bot)? I genuinely have no problem with alternative points of view, but I find it offensive that this troll cuts and pastes his/its comments several times in whatever thread he/it is responding to, and the ad hominem attacks against the opinions expressed in the Letters and the Comments deeply offensive. It wastes time and bandwidth, and frequently derails the discussion into trivial irrelevancies.
Politico has an informative article out. Always more complicated than it looks.
That said, all that subjective commentary doesnтАЩt belong in a special prosecutors report period.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/garland-decision-release-hur-report-00140806#:~:text=Attorney%20General%20Garland%20made%20the,to%20the%20greatest%20extent%20possible.
Thanks for posting this Christy. It answered some of my head-scratching confusion & questions about how this report could be released w/ apparently immaterial comments/opinions.
Maybe less head scratching but, at least for me, no less frustration. The entire DOJ needs a lesson from Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Timothy Snyder (and maybe throw in a few historical psychiatrists like RJ Lifton or Bandy Lee) on how to prevent an autocratic takeover from within. Seems like holding firm to institutional policies in times of chaos should be basic.
Thanks, Linda. Here's the address on the website -- in case others want to do the same: U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20530
Thank you....let's all do that.
May I suggest being informed as well as possible to make oneтАЩs points reasonable and effective.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/garland-decision-release-hur-report-00140806#:~:text=Attorney%20General%20Garland%20made%20the,to%20the%20greatest%20extent%20possible.
Linda, how astute. Bravo
Definitely a brava Linda ЁЯОп
Opps, I got my Latin incorrect. Mrs Tenny frowns
Someone on MSNBC suggested that knowing he has moles in Justice, AG Garland May have preferred the whole report to the leaking of whatтАЩs driving everyone mad.
Biden is old and it is an issue in this election. That's a fact. Will I vote for him? You betcha. Would I favor Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer to be our candidate? Absolutely. [I'll be 84 on 1-20-2025] "Old Joe" has done one helluva job.
And he is a decent human being. Win win--smart, good, fair, experienced statesman, respected on the world stage.
Stellar example or short but succinct.ЁЯСП
Absolutely. And if he has to step down, I am 100% comfortable with Kamala Harris. I almost laughed when Nikki Haley said that voting for Biden is voting for President Kamala Harris. That is the job of the Vice President, to be ready to step up. You have to be comfortable with both of them, and ready for both of them.
And imagine if BidenтАЩs last action as President, as a humanтАж was elevating a Black woman to the presidency. 74,000,000 MAGA heads would explode at once. тЬЛЁЯП╜ЁЯСйЁЯП╜тАНЁЯТ╝ЁЯдптАж and more importantly, make that feel entirely normal.
Kamala was my first choice for POTUS when the campaigning began. VP Harris was Calif. Atty Gen when I lived in California [1973 - 2015.]
She was my second after Cory Booker. I'd LOVE to see either Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer (maybe on the same ticket...) as Democratic nominees.
Nice that we can identify some excellent upcoming choices
Now, that would be a POWER COUPLE - Whitmer and Newsom. Would either one settle for 2nd place?
Good question. IтАЩd love to see it as a real тАЬco-PresidencyтАЭ.
She sure knew how to respond to the report.
Harris can carry the freight from an intelligence and appearance standpoint. Not so Haley, Warren, Hillary, Lisa M, Bobear, or mtg. A person I've noticed is Jasmine Crocket (TX)..., intelligent, informed, well-spoken (meaning she speaks good English) with a Southern twang. Only thing lacking is time at temperature. Watch her.
I think that I can safely guarantee you and predict that Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from my home state of Texas is a rising star in the Democratic Party and will be a force with which to be reckoned. The swift-boating of Hillary Clinton, the most qualified person to ever run for the presidency, is an effective tool that the Republicans know how to use. Democrats need to seize upon the process and forget this bunk about "going high when they go low." Sorry, Michelle.
Hur's brazen dirty political attack on Biden is deplorable--whatever happened to the notion of the esteemed elder sage? Lay off the ageism thing and stirring the pot, Hur! We're all taking this personally--I'm 72 and starting a new job next week....
I have my eye on Dan Goldman, D-Rep. NY, for 2028.
ЁЯСНЁЯП╜ЁЯСНЁЯП╜ЁЯСНЁЯП╜ЁЯСНЁЯП╜ I agree--Goldman is sharp and takes no prisoners.
Dan is simply brilliant. Honest. Hard. Soft. Tolerant. Firm. The conservative liberal real honest Democrat.
I love him too. He looked so exhausted on the tube yesterday. ЁЯШв hard to be a warrior for democracy in this Congress
Best wishes on your new job! I started a new career last year too at 69!
What new career pray tell?
I agree with Richard. And I will support Joe Biden, but I do think that the Democratic Party and Joe Biden need a plan B. I am 78, and I know that things can change in a heartbeat. This election and its violent aftermath is going to require focus on the issues and democracy.
And Dems drag their feet when it comes to pushing forward promising candidates for high office while the party occupies the Oval Office. We тАЬelect and forgetтАЭ when we win the presidency.
Roger, another "78"! I'm a Sept boy.
Plan B is Kamala Harris. The VP.
I said тАЬPlan BтАЭ, not fallback. Biden ran as the centrist candidate; Democrats will still need to appeal to RINOs and independents. Just Sayin.
Leo for me.
Well said Richard. I am close to Trumps age. And as my Dad said just before he died: "Your body might hurt, but you never feel 'old' in your head". And that is at the core of our problem.
Newsom and Whitmer's generation should be driving the car. We are pulling a "Victoria" or "Queen Elizabeth". Our generation has been too long in the saddle.
But I am still "Ridin' with Biden" unless he does the LBJ. It is still early. On March 31, 1968 Johnson announced he wouldn't be running for re-election. If Joe read the tea leaves, he would do the same.
And within minutes, a dozen or more highly qualified Democratic candidates for president would emerge and election democracy would move rapidly to establish a new contender.
But Vote Blue no Matter Who - or democracy dies an awful death.
A couple things could happen, Bill, for Biden to retire.
First, least likely (due to time) -- criminal conviction of the fat, orange-make-up caked, diapered insurrectionist-in-chief. But conviction could come before Republican convention, and could force delegates to the shock of seeing that conviction combined with sudden awareness of their incredibly bad record on getting anything done for the public. Disaster looming for all in November.
Second, the nine justices of the Supreme Court could realize they'd all taken oath to defend the Constitution, and that its article 14, section three obliges them unanimously to order insurrectionist-in-chief immediately and permanently off the ballot in all 50 states.
Well Kamala Harris has been an apprentice to one of the best Presidents weтАЩve been fortunate enough to have these last 4 years, so I am thrilled to stick with Joe and the administration he has built.
I for one am SHOCKED that the R's have yet to say the quiet part about this out loud on this one yet. Not only a woman, but a black woman as president? The wailing, the rending of cloth, the dispairing that will ensue! They will set their own money on fire to prove she's unfit.
What I find thrilling and ironic is that the last group to get the right to vote (Black females) are the ones leading the charge to save our democracy. Judge Chutkan, AG Leticia James, DA Fani Willis, Congresswomen Lee and Crockett, Stacey Abrams, and more.
They tried in 2020.
Being 82, there is old & then there is old! Some age like fine wine, like Pres Biden & others age much younger & become brittle & broken. Do "woke" people age like fine wine & the me me me people just become sour grapes? I am playing pickle ball today.
True, age is in many instances relative. No one comes close to guessing my age. Still, it is an issue for many and the Republicans will swift boat it to high heaven while ignoring their demented criminal candidate.
As someone mentioned how many times those questioned by the J6 committee replied" i dont recall"
In general, I agree, though might pick other standard bearersтАж I am 77.
Ben Hur he ain't.
Stop this chariot, I want to get off...
As good as
A long (and boring) documentary could be made of the many тАЬI donтАЩt recall nowтАЭ under oath responses of GOP members in recent times of recent events.
Good reply!!!
How about you stop moaning about how unfair it is.
Garland was played like a fool.
Anyone could have seen this coming.
Did you expect them to be nice?
The ire at Garland has always been misdirected. Hur had a credible record - until now.
This is on Hur. Angling for a Trump lifetime appointment or a nomination at best or a Scalia Law School appointment at the wholly Charles Koch owned George Mason Univ.
Hur got a tee time to play golf with a notorious cheaterтАж..he doesnтАЩt know yet that heтАЩll have to carry his own clubsтАжтАж.
But, didnтАЩt Garland have to read it before presented? Hur had cart blanche? This is what really disturbs me.
Fair would be nice, but Dems should give up on any republican being either.
A bit of light in the MAGAGOPGRU abyss.
James Lankford upholding coming to consensus through reasoned debate in negotiating the border bill.
Ken Buck consistently
criticizing MAGA.
Susan Collins supporting the aid supplemental. Of course, making a case for the military industrial complex (google Bath Iron works) but still mopping the floor with Mike Lee (always a good thing) and moving the bill forward for debate (a better thing.)
And Ilya Somin - Professor of Law at the Scalia Law School of the wholly Charles Koch George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute - coming out for keeping Trump off the ballot. (Colorado should've gotten him to argue the case.)
Thank you, a "bit of light" is always welcome, especially from somebody who shines...
We need a lot more of that to erode the Trump phenomenon тАжbut it can be done. They need to care about their country and break the oligarchтАЩs powerтАжThey can still champion conservative issues and support conservative agendas, but in the interest of governing, not taking over and subverting our constitution ( a la, the Project 2025).
Even pearl-clutching Susie Collins can see that the chickens are starting to come home to roost. She may sound like she's an ancient but she's the same age as I am and we aren't decrepit yet! Or at all.
Sadly, it seems like EVERY Republican is running scared of the Orange Juggernaut. I keep thinking they could be rid of his oppressive control over them if they were to reject him en masse. In short time, his blather would wear thin and his power would fade.
But it is not the тАЬtoolтАЭ Trump that Republicans are running from. It is the money people whose behind-the-curtain hands wield that tool. The conservative money guys - call тАШem oligarchs? - have a long-term plan for cementing power, and they are the ones actually calling the shots.
As long as The Tool keeps spouting the conservative agenda, the oligarchs will hold onto him and the people they have in place to enact that agenda will be kept in line.
You would think that if some of these conservatives actually went to Washington to govern in a democratic system, and NOT to enact a long-term тАЬtake-over,тАЭ they would try to help break this stranglehold that makes our country look so inept and ludicrous on the world stageтАж
100% on target. He would be easy to ditch but follow the money, and he doesn't have enough. It's a scam game that repubs have signed on to at the price of any human characteristics. A whole pascal of Dorian Grays.
Yes, Jeri. And Dems need to deal with the real power threat .. defeat Trump and UNDO the power that SCOTUS gave to oligarchs. Not EASY, but not complicated, either. Put some real energy behind undoing Citizens United. And resist the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.
Please recall a bunch of other causalities creating Citizens United.
The Powell in 1971 memo set up the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, and all the rest.
They arranged the offshoring of those millions of American working class jobs. They fixed alliances between unscrupulous U.S. billionaires
and murderous dictators, oligarchs abroad.
But before that -- all through the 1970s -- they killed the humanities in American schools, so elites would not reference what American artists could and did see happening.
YES, this has been a desperate desire of oligarchy since the New Deal was passed. They used the communist menace to tar anyone who spoke of the common good, and by the 70s, and especially the 80s, they were getting up a head of steam. By then, a new generation had reached adulthood that had NOT come through the Depression and was not primed to understand what the New Deal meant to everyday laborers and people living on what they earned, week to week, month to month. And with that lack of cultural memory, itтАЩs tougher to get voters to fullly grasp what the oligarchs want to get us back to тАж the Gilded Age, if not all the way back to Lords of the Manor and serfs who need to be grateful for what they get.
All that and more, by Nov. HA Time for another million man (and woman) march.
Could be!
I may have to crawl
Without a doubt. Even as a kid, 70+ years ago, i remember American politics had the reputation then of being cutthroat.
I don't remember a time when Dems were cutthroat.. I remember many times when they should have been. Even in the 70's, they didn't take advantage of Nixon's treachery.
ThereтАЩs a recording of a phone conversation between LBJ and Nixon about NOT revealing Republican treachery for fear of creating a public firestorm just before the 1968 election ( regarding Republicans destroying the Paris Peace talks that would have stopped the fighting in Vietnam before the election - in 1968, six years of war and death and many horrors would have been prevented, but the RтАЩs scuttled it to put Nixon in office тАФ and Johnson says it happened and Nixon admits it did, and NO ONE did anything about it ever ..
We think NixonтАЩs big crime was Watergate. HAH! Not even close. It was sneaking into the presidency on Dirty Tricks, including prolonging the Vietnam War and the destruction of so many lives here and abroad for Six More Years before cutting and running.
Talk about Democrats NOT holding Republican bad actors to account!
Reagan's anti-Union shenanigans. The NRA. Iran-Contra, the Florida vote that put Dubya over the top, ignoring Al Qaeda before 9/11, invading Iraq, torture, black sites, Trump!
EgadтАж.
Astute reminders, Pat.
SAD ones, too!
Be well.
Hard as it is to remember those treacherous times, we need to. Chump learned from the masters. Wish LBJ had made a big stink. Of course, I remember 1968. It reminds me of today. Time to make sure we don't have fifty more years of hell.
We heard challenges and denials about those Peace Talks for decades! George HW was alleged to have been a part of it {he was in intelligence services and clandestine operations before he became a politician тАФ worked with Bill Barr, as a matter of fact}. But it was always denied. The recordings confirming it were not made public for fifty years тАж But the recording exists and IтАЩve heard it. Makes me sick to my stomach. So does so much of the other death-dealing that has gone on. {And I KNOW Democrats are not innocent of sending people overseas to cause mayhem. That all matters. But RIGHT NOW, I am talking about dismantling our very democracy. We will not get a chance to lean on Democrats OR Republicans to do better in the future, if we let the conservative oligarchy take over our government тАФ if anyone still does not know what they plan, theyтАЩre not keeping it a secret. Read their Project 2025.}
You are so right, I read that LBJ knew before the election in 1968. The Dems have never been able to match the machinations of the repubs. But I just thought repubs were elitists. I'm sort of for the underdog mostly. Now the underdogs go for the bullly/billionaires. Propaganda most assuredly works.
Fifty years after the fact, proof of what the Republicans did to destroy HumphreyтАЩs chances of being elected was made public. A recording of LBJ taking to Dick Nixon, saying outright that the Democrats know the Paris Peace Talks were undermined at the very point at which an agreement was to be signed.
LBJ said the administration knew the South Vietnamese were promised theyтАЩd get a better deal if Nixon was elected, so they were advised by a faction supporting NixonтАЩs election not to sign the peace accord. LBJ said that is the only reason they would refused to sign the agreement they had negotiated. It was mere days before the election, and it would have made the Democrats look so good, it seemed Humphrey would be a shoo in. Nixon says тАШyes.тАЩ
Instead, the talks fell apart, and Nixon was elected.
LBJ, on that recording several days before the election, said he was afraid that he would ignite a firestorm nationally, if he brought out the truth, and Nixon says тАШyes.тАЩ
LBJ says what was done to those peace talks was treason. Nixon says тАШyes.тАЩ
LBJ says he knows Nixon now has the election sewed up, so it would be NixonтАЩs job to deal with the traitors. Nixon says тАШyes.тАЩ
The treason was not brought out, Nixon was elected, and he prolonged and expanded the war for six more years of death and destruction in small foreign lands, fought by our soldiers who were mostly young {average age 19, if memory serves, as opposed to 26 in WWII} and/or from, shall we say, тАЬless privilegedтАЭ demographics.
That is now HISTORY about the LBJ/Nixon era тАж not conjecture.
Thank you for this. Knew about Nixon and Anna Chenault but didn't know the extent of Nixon's treachery for many years. Makes one wonder how deep the China connection was. A national firestorm would have been preferable to what has transpired. And a firestorm still seems inevitable.
Very sad.
Very true.
Great time for snake-oil salesmen
Ya think? I think Garland knew exactly what he was doing. As HCR pointed out, this makes the Republicans look like the assholes they are. And Faux News has been implicated as well, which is even better.
The 25% of the MAGANAZIs eat this BS up. But what about the 75% that find it abhorrent?
You and I think similarly
Please let it be!
Will any of the maggots, including those at faux news, take the time and trouble first to read and consider calmly all 300-odd pages of the report and then be capable of parsing it and distinguishing factual statements and conclusions from opinions? Even the Grey Lady seems to fail at the attempt, as I count seven articles about the report, a "protective White House", and stepping aside due to age, on the "front page" of today's digital issue. https://www.nytimes.com/
Lynn- Fox and the Republican Congresscritters and Senators will select one or two sentences from the 300 pages and run with each one on consecutive days. We've seen it before we will see it again.
Why such anger at strangers on the internet? I don't get it.
It's not anger, at all.
There is a tinge of despair, a huge amount of concern, a strong desire to provoke action..... but I really can't see where you see "anger", Tinfoil.
My comment is firmly rooted in love.
You might want to work on that.
Work on what? Lin. Sorry, I don't follow.
тАЬHow about you stop moaning about how unfair it is.тАЭ
I read that as pretty hostile and sarcastic.
But that is exactly what all the dems are doing, Tinfoil.
You cant get angry because I said the emperor was naked.
If everybody here agrees on everything and somebody says something a bit different it doesn't necessarily mean they are angry... even if it makes you angry.
'In real life,' Trump and his insurrection partners lucked out with the meekest of AG's. Chalk that up to Biden, who is also none too happy with having picked Merrick Garland to head the Justice Department.
Hadn't heard that one in the news...
'The report from special counsel Robert Hur ultimately cleared Biden of any charges stemming from his handling of classified documents that were found at BidenтАЩs think tank and his home. But HurтАЩs explanation for not bringing charges тАФ that Biden would have persuaded the jury that he was a forgetful old man тАФ upended the presidential campaign and infuriated the White House.' (Politico)
'Biden and his closest advisers believe Hur went well beyond his purview and was gratuitous and misleading in his descriptions, according to those two people, who were granted anonymity to speak freely. And they put part of the blame on Garland, who they say should have demanded edits to HurтАЩs report, including around the descriptions of BidenтАЩs faltering memory.'
'In White House meetings, aides have questioned why Garland felt the need to appoint a special counsel in the first place, though Biden has publicly said he supported the decision.'
'While Biden himself has not weighed in on GarlandтАЩs future, most of the presidentтАЩs senior advisers do not believe that the attorney general would remain in his post for a possible second term, according to the two people.'
тАЬThis has been building for a while,тАЭ said one of those people. тАЬNo one is happyтАЭ
'Frustration within the White House at Garland has been growing steadily.'
'Last year, Biden privately denounced how long the probe into his son was taking, telling aides and outside allies that he believed the stress could send Hunter Biden spiraling back into addiction, according to the same two people. And the elder Biden, the people said, told those confidants that Garland should not have eventually empowered a special counsel to look into his son, believing that he again was caving to outside pressure.'
'In recent weeks, President Biden has grumbled to aides and advisers that had Garland moved sooner in his investigation into former President Donald TrumpтАЩs election interference, a trial may already be underway or even have concluded, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss private matters. That trial still could take place before the election and much of the delay is owed not to Garland but to deliberate resistance put up by the former president and his team.' (Politico) See link below.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/white-house-frustration-with-garland-grows-00140813
Good info Fern. My amateur take on Garland is that he is fair minded, rooted in a careful interpretation of the law - he acts like a judge.
I would have preferred that he act like a prosecutor. Trump could have been arrested and charged in 2021. And he certainly could have been jailed once the scope of the Mar A Lago top secret documents theft became evident.
For clarity, I use this question: "If I had taken thousands of top secret documents from the White House - shown them around, stored them in a bathroom where they could be taken or viewed - if I had done that, what would my fate have been?" I suspect I would be in prison. And if not, I probably couldn't be elected dog catcher.
And if I watched a riot/rebellion/invasion of the Capitol TV - as a public official with authority over thousands of people in uniform and I ignored phone calls pleading with me (with all the power I had) to stop the violence and restore order - and I had done nothing for almost 3 hours...what would my fate be?
AG Garland has been negligent from day one. I wish Kamala Harris had had the job then. The trials could have been completed by now.
I totally agree, Bill. I think Biden was gifting Garland with the DOJ job to make up for what Mitch did to him, stealing from him what would have been the perfect job for someone of his intelligence and temperament. And I've also always thought Kamala Harris would be a terrific DOJ. We're on the same page.
Bill, your comment reflects my exact opinion. We needed prosecutorial fire, not judicial restraint. Period.
Thanks for saying that , Bill. Those are our feelings exactly for over two years.
The report is transparently egregious, an exercise in character assassination. Biden's and the Dems counterplay was well played. They had all their ducks lined up, quack quack MAGA
And the media continue to be good foot soldiers making sure to amplify HurтАЩs disingenuous political hit job.
Annabel, I have a question: Why didnтАЩt Merrick Garland make Hur follow department policy to not discuss the investigation into someone that they do not plan to charge then or after they leave the presidency? Once again, rules about reporting on a finished or ongoing investigation have been broken (Comey was the first when he disclosed an ongoing investigation into Clinton while remaining quiet about an investigation into RussiaтАЩs interference/ties to TrumpтАЩs campaign).
If I were BidenтАЩs staff, IтАЩd add him to the daily briefing (daily for the next two weeks, then weekly until the election) with 1 question apiece from 5 reporters answered each time (determined by drawing a number to eliminate questions of bias).
It appears the entire Republican Party has lost any sense of integrity. The entire Party seems to have taken on the ethos and mentality of its leader. A once great Party disgraces itself every day. Sad!
James Carville was on Smerconish this am. James asked how it was that that far right attorney was given the investigation into Biden's docs. And why 14 of 15 special counsels were Republicans. He asked, aren't there any Democrat lawyers in Washington? My question is how the hell was Hur even able to release that hit job. Doesn't that stuff get reviewed? What the hell is Merrick Garland even doing there. https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/02/10/smr-carville-on-dems-after-special-counsel-fallout.cnn
No blow is too low for the Trumpublicans.
To complete AnnabelтАЩs unpackingтАФтАЬтАФbecause the DOJ let me get away with it and the taxpayers paid for it.тАЭ
Stated so perfectly, I can only add "thank you, Annabel"!
That is what political hacks do.
Nice paraphrase, Annabel.