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William Farrar's avatar

totally understand the reluctance to assume bad faith on the part of Garland, however his inactions, and his actions, lead in that direction.

I don't think that he was waiting on the J6 committee to do his job, because Congress does not have the power, to indict and prosecute. And it wasn't until Nov 18, 2022 that he (reluctantly in my opinion) appointed Jack Smith as special counsel. The J6 committee was formed on Jul 1, 2021, and IIRC it was more than 3/4's of the way into it's session, when Garland asked for it's records. In my suspicious mind his purpose was to throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings and apparently the chair, Bennie Thompson agreed because he refused to until the proceedings were over. And still he has not even considered indicting the ringleaders in the Congress, nor Matt Gaetz, who clearly violated federal law regarding violation of the Mann Act..

But looking for a savior is the weakness of liberals, like the high hopes placed on the Mueller investigation which turned out to be a nothing burger. in my opinion a cover up by Trump humping Barr and Mueller.

It took over a year for Garland to appoint Smith, and he only did so, after he was receiving criticism from his peers, and the press.

And there is the first savior , this one is completely glossed over by our chauvinistic historians.

The French, who pulled our bacon out of the fire at Yorktown, by showing up with a well armed fleet

blocking Chesapeake bay, from the British fleet , resulting in Cornwall's surrender to Washington.

Were it not for the French, would there even be a Constitution and a United States of America.

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RMDolddave's avatar

Since Reconstruction, the root cause of our democracy's decay has only been strengthened with a series of legal fictions (like in 1886, 1976, 1978, and 2010) that have cemented oligarchic control over our public sector decision-makers. Whether it was the slave masters and robber barons in the 19th Century, or those who have accumulated monopolistic power in subsequent centuries, oligarchs will continue to exploit their powers of corporate personhood to control our government. There are a few fundamental elements in their strategy to exploit our democracy and it starts with being able to manipulate enough poorly educated citizens to vote for their chosen public sector corporate whores. First, Americans pay for almost half of our public education with property taxes, thus ensuring a huge discrepancy of the quality of education between the haves and the have-nots, and the have-nots are pissed (making them easily flimflammed-especially the white ones). Second, with millions of Americans getting the smelly end of a crap education, they learned to be bad at learning thus making them great targets for the grifters that use wrath, racism (and the rest of the wedgies) to control their perception of our country. Third, the reach and immediacy of 21st Century IT and social media coupled with an ill-educated electorate have turbocharged the power of the oligarch’s propagandists and now they can control academia as well. How to stop it? Like Thom says, we need to do it ourselves and, I have started a project, (website currently under construction but can be ready for prime time in a week) with what I believe to be the simplest-to-use process to engage enough citizens that will compel our elected officials to satisfy their Constitutional purpose. Basically, first we need 12 million citizens to send email petitions to every one of their elected officials and candidates for office, and ask them 1) do they agree that their Constitutional purpose is to do their best to promote our general welfare? And 2) do they agree that we must nullify the powers of corporate personhood, or our democracy will continue to backslide into autocracy? That’s how we can seize the framing and messaging for how we address the relationship between our citizens and our elected officials. As the project evolves, I plan to donate it and any subscription or donation revenues to the Substack writers and progressive influencers (and any other collaborators) who will make the project a success. And then we can move on to phase 2, sustained nonviolent resistance with a strategy. For this to work, I would love to have you look at my website and provide your thoughtful criticisms and ideas, just send a request with your email ID and I’ll send you the link.

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