October 3, 2023

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance: About Merrick Garland

[I'm generally slow to read Joyce, so I checked with the search tool before posting. If this is a duplcate, I apologize]
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“The American people must protect each other.” That’s what Attorney General Merrick Garland said on 60 Minutes Sunday night. He choked up saying it, perhaps because it’s so out of reach these days, or perhaps because he has relatives who died in the Holocaust simply because they were Jews and that’s an integral part of who he is. Let’s not fault anyone who’s emotional on occasion about the fate of our country—we should all be at this point.

Other important things happened in Merrick Garland’s wide ranging interview. Although it’s easy to set him aside as the Attorney General who was too slow to act when it came to Trump, we now know that it’s complicated. Garland walked a careful balance on a knife’s edge and only history will be able to assess whether he got it right. But there is much to like about his commitment to democracy and his willingness to give the type of interview few attorneys general do—it’s easier, given the nature of the work, to stay cloistered on Pennsylvania Avenue, giving talks only at carefully chosen venues. This interview was an effort to reach out beyond that and to speak to people who might not otherwise hear from him.

Asked about his objective as Attorney General, Garland said it was to “pass our democracy on, in working order, to the next generation.” That would have been mere pleasantry from any of his predecessors. For Garland, it’s serious business, and it’s important to hear him say it out loud.

Joe Biden’s Attorney General was always going to be in a tight spot, no matter who he chose for the job. The weightiest of choices, whether to indict a former president, was always going to rest on their shoulders. And that decision was going to be made in the context of a Justice Department that had lost much of its credibility with the public despite the diligence of its employees, due in no small part to the deliberate efforts of Donald Trump to undermine the country’s confidence in the Department.

[snip]

May 19, 2023

PoliticsGirl: Please Don't Move

There's been a fair amount of discussion on this topic here. This video is one opinion (certainly a passinate one.) To me, such a decisin is so personal I won't take a side - at least not today.

March 20, 2023

Al Franken

I know there are a lor of people her who miss him. So when I found his email in my inbox that he is hosting The Daily Show this week, I thought I would post.

Dear Person Who Still Opens My Emails,



I wanted to call your attention to something I’ll be doing this coming week: hosting The Daily Show. Since Trevor Noah left the show after seven excellent years, they’ve been having guest hosts filling in. Hosts like Leslie Jones, Wanda Sykes, D.L. Hughley, Chelsea Handler, Sarah Silverman, Hasan Minhaj, Marlon Wayans, and Kal Penn.

Now, it’s me! The first white male host! Exciting! Huh!?