Germans did it right.

@SusanInFlorida plenty have been sentenced and many in prison. But the coup plotters themselves .trump..Eastman , flynn etc are still walking around,

@SusanInFlorida We have due process over here, and the DOJ is notoriously careful. But the 1/6 committee is about to make criminal referrals. I predict that Trump will be indicted by February.

@LeopoldBloom yeah - those congressional hearings. taking place on TV. while the DOJ files no charges. Yeah - due process.

@SusanInFlorida Congressional hearings can't lead to indictment unless DOJ follows through. The 1/6 committee will be releasing their report this month, along with making referrals to DOJ, at which point it will be up to Merrick Garland and Jack Smith. Due process doesn't mean the person can't be investigated; it refers to criminal proceedings. Trump hasn't been indicted yet so due process doesn't apply at the moment.

@LeopoldBloom you're carrying my water. thanks. perhaps we should just fire 90% of the DOJ, it its not going to independently investigate and prosecute actual crimes. Just send everything straight to a televised hearing? Win win for the cable TV networks, and the American taxpayer?

@SusanInFlorida Do you understand the difference between congressional hearings and criminal trials? Apparently not. You certainly don't know what due process is.

Whenever Trump has been given an opportunity to testify, he's either refused or taken the 5th amendment (which in the past, he's said is proof of guilt - even though it's not, it's a constitutional right). So according to you, how should the hearings be conducted to grant him "due process?" Allow him to hold his own private hearings where he forces the committee members to answer questions? Or he's such a holy man, even thinking badly of him is a violation of his rights?

You're a perfect example of how the US fails at teaching basic civics.

@LeopoldBloom so to sum up: your position is that congressional televised hearings are ESSENTIAL, because the (Biden) DOJ is too corrupt to do it's job, and charge trump. And that televised hearings ARENT about crass political demonization of the opposition party.

Let's see how you feel as the house republican majority launches TV hearings on "hunters laptop", lol.

this is too easy. partisan on the fringes seem to be completely incapable of conceiving of the shoe being on the other foot. Or politicians always acting to preserve their power and privilege.

Enjoy your dreamworld.

@SusanInFlorida Yes, televised hearings are essential in a free society. Nothing that important should be hidden. And it's a little early to conclude that Trump won't be charged. My prediction is that Jack Smith will indict him by February. That assumes Fani Willis doesn't move first.

And yeah, Hunter's laptop. What's interesting is that Trump's DOJ under Bill Barr's leadership had possession of the laptop for 14 months, and issued no indictments, conducted no investigation, nothing. I'm sure you have some tinfoil-hat "deep state" theory for that. The Deep State is so pervasive, even Bill Barr is part of it. Heck, maybe you think Trump is a Deep State operative.

Here's the difference. If your orange boy stands trial, it will be a witch hunt. And if the Republicans want the next two years to be a circus of nothing more than the laptop, that's fine, the voters can decide in 2024 if they approve or not.

But if the laptop has evidence that Hunter or Joe committed crimes, then I say arrest them. I'll go even further than you would and say to heck with the DOJ not charging a sitting president. March into the Oval Office and put Joe in handcuffs, charge him, try him, and send him to prison. No American should be above the law. If you can't say the same about Trump, then everything you accuse me of actually applies to you.

@LeopoldBloom your making my case. The DOJ/FBI has completely failed us (or deliberately obscured the truth) on . .

1. The Steele dossier origins
2. Trumps "Russian collusion"
3. The stolen top secret documents
4. the January 6th insurrection
5. Antifa arson of over a dozen courthouses
6. latin american narcotics smuggling/corruption
7. Mexican guns (the DOJ "fast and furious" operation)
8. importation/smuggling of Chinese fentanyl
9. stopping state sponsored attacks on "the grid" and the financial system
10. ensuring our election system integrity

They can't even come up with a plausible reason why the Vegas mass killer shot 57 people, and how he got all those weapons and thousands of rounds of ammo into his upper floor hotel room.

And now we've traded the worlds most dangerous arms dealer for (lady) basketball player arrested on trumped up "vape" charges, lol.

@SusanInFlorida Believe it or not, it takes a while to prepare for a complex federal case. The "Blooming Onion" bust last year in Georgia (the largest human trafficking case in US history) took at least three years to prepare, and involved multiple state and federal agencies. Regarding the cases you listed:

1. The Steele dossier origins - BFD. Poor Trump was inconvenienced.
2. Trumps "Russian collusion" - see above. Ooh, some mean stories in the media. And we've never learned what Trump discussed at that meeting in Trump tower or why there were documented contacts between his campaign and Russia. Move along, nothing to see here.
3. The stolen top secret documents - this is my prediction for what they will bust Trump for by February. It's an easy one.
4. the January 6th insurrection - around 700 people have been charged, with many convictions including a few Oath Keepers for sedition.
5. Antifa arson of over a dozen courthouses - "antifa" is not an organization. Individuals have been charged in these cases.
6. latin american narcotics smuggling/corruption - See my Blooming Onion comment. This is complex and like that case, involves people in foreign countries.
7. Mexican guns (the DOJ "fast and furious" operation) - if this was a thing, it should have been investigated by the last administration. Should Biden investigate Teapot Dome?
8. importation/smuggling of Chinese fentanyl - what makes you think this isn't being investigated? Although, the "fentanyl crisis" is overblown, and restrictions are affecting people who genuinely need it. If it was up to me, all drugs would be legal.
9. stopping state sponsored attacks on "the grid" and the financial system - going on behind the scenes and involves more counterattacks than legal action
10. ensuring our election system integrity - our elections are already extremely secure. The 2022 election was the most secure in history, followed by the 2020 election. Unless you're a MAGA who thinks any election where a Democrat wins is fraudulent. Lauren Boebert won by a hair, but you don't hear any MAGA saying we need to investigate potential fraud.

The Vegas shooter was a loon and got the weapons up there because no one was paying attention. The word for the event is "soft target." Interestingly, this resulted in the first significant gun control legislation in a while, the banning of bump stocks. I'm a gun guy but I have to confess that I'd never heard of a bump stock until that story came out. Trump is still considered a pro-2nd amendment president despite signing that legislation.

Even the judge who sentenced Bout has said his sentence was too harsh. The guy served ten years. Having been out of the arms business for that time, it's not like he's going back to work. I will be interested in hearing whether Griner even had any vape on her. I suspect it was planted. Unfortunately, this sets a dangerous precedent for foreign countries holding US citizens to trade for people we're holding (one reason why it's considered a bad idea to negotiate). However, there were other issues around Griner.