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Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

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Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

The words do not have to be perfect.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

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How stupid are these people?

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People are weird.

He really is that stupid.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

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Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Attorney General Merrick Garland Testified Before Congress

Attorney General Merrick Garland Testified Before Congress

by | 46 Comments

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Did any of you watch live?  How did it go?

I was busy making a lovely lunch and other preparations for my best friend’s birthday celebration lunch.  I had forgotten much time and energy it takes to get everything together!  It’s 60+ degrees today, so we had a lovely time on the screened-in porch.

Now it’s time for me to get back to work.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  1. 1.

    japa21

    Only able to hear part of his opening statement.  A lot of preemptive strikes, talking about what the DOJ has been doing.  I didn’t want to hear the GOP jerks go after him.  I hope he was able to handle it okay.

  2. 2.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    It’s 60+ degrees today, so we had a lovely time on the screened-in porch.

    Jealous!

  3. 3.

    UncleEbeneezer

    I didn’t get to watch it yet.  But seeing as this is a Garland thread, and his DOJ is doing great work on trying to make amends for historical racism, I thought I’d share this article I just stumbled across, about the once-thriving Black community in Santa Monica, CA, that sadly suffered the same fate as so many other cities like it in America.  As a fave podcaster noted just the other day “America is a Sundown Country”:

    Not many outsiders know of Santa Monica for its close-knit communities of people of color who have called it home. Between 1920 and 1970, during what is known as the Great Migration, African-Americans left the south in search of better opportunities. Thousands of African-American familieslanded in the sleepy beachside country town of Santa Monica. In the late 1930s, one of those families was my own. Word traveled back home to Arkansas that, “The beach is so clean you can sleep on it.”

    Most of these families, coupled with the influx of Hispanics in the area, called the Pico neighborhood of Santa Monica home.

    Over the past half-century, the Pico neighborhood in Santa Monica has been a crown jewel for people of color. The Pico Neighborhood is a historically Black neighborhood, which still bears the legacy of the racial segregation that created it.

    Due to informal discriminatory housing practices and racist restrictive real estate covenants, Black people couldn’t buy, rent, or own property outside of the Pico corridor. Black residents couldn’t own property north of Wilshire, south of Ocean Park, or west of 4th Street. You didn’t see Black people north of Montana, a “sundown” town, as they were forced out of that side of town after dark. Segregation even hit the public beach, as Black residents migrated to the Inkwell — the oceanfront at the bottom of Pico, between Bay Street and Bicknell Avenue.

  4. 4.

    Dangerman

    Central Californian here. We have a ridiculous cost of living here. Obscene, really. All we ask in return is lots snd lots of sunshine.

    Enough of this rain shit. Hell, it snowed on me Saturday. It never snows here. Ever. ENOUGH!

  5. 5.

    Old School

    Didn’t watch, but assume the Republicans used their time to craft soundbites to air on Hannity tonight.

  6. 6.

    JWR

    I haven’t seen any of it except for clips posted to Twitter, such as this gem:

    Acyn
    @Acyn
    Cruz: There have been multiple leaks about what was discovered at Mar-a-Lago including a photograph of documents
    Garland: The photograph was a filing in court, it was not a leak
    10:59 AM · Mar 1, 2023

    Rat boy got bit.

  7. 7.

    Ohio Mom

    Just hearing about this. I was out and about, just came home to Ohio Dad grumbling about the tax forms he’s filling out.

    Trump’s shenanigans are costing us much more money than OD anticipated. I am reminded I hate every single Republican that ever walked the earth, from my next door neighbors on out.

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    I saw clips of both Hawley and Cruz performing for Fox News questioning Garland.

    Ol’ Merrick clearly got the best of both of them.  Hee hee.

  10. 10.

    Leslie

    @WaterGirl: The entire state of California is a drought zone. Except for one tiny little pocket of land near Santa Cruz that is technically normal, but for practical purposes it’s all drought all the time.

    The rain this year has reduced the severity of the drought; areas that were level 4 are now “only” level 2, etc. But that’s all.

  11. 11.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Cruz looked like an ass. The guy thinks he’s playing a part in a Hollywood movie.

  12. 12.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Holy shit, it’s snowing here in Altadena!!!  We are at 1,300 feet but this is the first time I have ever seen snow in 20+ years of living in SoCal (not counting trips up to Big Bear, Wrightwood etc.)

  14. 14.

    artem1s

    My money is on Garland completely pwning the GQPer Qongress Qritters. Maybe not as much as the Email Lady did in the 83,765th Benghazi hearing though.

  15. 15.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    Cruz looked like an ass. The guy thinks he’s playing a part in a Hollywood movie.

    Sadly, with regards to Raffy Cruz and his shitstain cohorts, it appears that we all are playing parts in a movie, a David Lynch movie…

  16. 16.

    Leslie

    @UncleEbeneezer: I’m up in the AV at about 2,000 feet, and the weather gods have completely mocked me and refused to send me any snow, even with all these storms coming through. I hope you enjoy yours.

  17. 17.

    Scout211

    @UncleEbeneezer: We are at 750 ft (NorCal) and had about 1/2 inch of graupel  on Monday. I didn’t even know what that was until this week. It was really quite pretty. The super cold weather and freezing temps overnight are just not right, though. I do not approve.

  18. 18.

    JWR

    @UncleEbeneezer: Not only that, but local news said that Los Angeles is currently setting the lowest average temp record since, I think, 1923, or 100 years ago.

  19. 19.

    Ken

    Obviously Garland disappointed me.  Realistically, he couldn’t snap his fingers to signal FBI agents to rush in arrest Cruz and Hawley during the hearings.

    But. He. Didn’t. Even. Try.

  20. 20.

    trollhattan

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    The amount of snow this winter has been crazyballs. Per the 3-region graphs, the South Region has passed the historical highest year, Central is approaching it and North is also doing well, just not that well.

    March is the final significant snow month and April 1 signals the historical end of winter in the mountains. We are at 166% of the historical April 1 average and 189% of average for this date.

    The cold is annoying as heck but getting our storms as snow and not rain is a Very Good Thing, because the rivers would be flowing and flooding like mad if we caught some tropical atmospheric river event right now.

    No idea what’s happening in the Colorado River watershed, but I doubt Lake Mead is filling this year (or perhaps ever). Shasta and Oroville are, though.

  22. 22.

    Almost Retired

    @trollhattan:  We were hiking near Lake Mead a couple weeks ago.  Definitely not filling up, alas.

    Colder than a penguin’s ass here in the South Bay section of Los Angeles, in my non-insulated house heated only by a 50’s era wall heater that warms the immediate three feet around it.

  25. 25.

    feebog

    North Valley Angeleno here and we had rain, followed by a sun break and 50 mph winds.  It can keep on raining and snowing all this month, break this fucking drought.

  27. 27.

    HumboldtBlue

    @raven:

    Thought of you while watching a new WW2 series I stumbled upon. I doubt you’ll learn much new, but it does feature Dr. Peter Caddick-Adams

    As for the California weather, we have had very cold weather, lots of rain, sleet, hail, and whatever the slush can be called, and then clear freezing overnight temps.

  28. 28.

    Jager

    We live in the caldera of the extinct volcano Mt. Conjeo, we’ve had plenty of rain, low 40s (it did get down to 38 Sunday night) 50s-60s in the daytime. SoCalGas has kicked our collective asses, 3 years in this house and we’ve never had a gas bill over 80 bucks, it jumped to 180 something. We have two older neighbors who keep their homes warm and toasty, both of them got bills of around 300 bucks last month. SoCal Gas sent a notice that due to BS, BS, BS, and more BS, they are going to have to ask for rate increases. I read this morning that the top 3 executives got nice warm and fat raises this winter. Here’s the story https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=3d11dcbc-bfc3-4d70-82bb-75ec0e341057&fbclid=IwAR0Sb6F7GB0garE1nVdXPuJXVqV_wwmVpBndlgNuC9329n7jefRhDXL4-Yg

  29. 29.

    cain

    @JWR: I’m kind of worried what that is going to do for planting season. I hope NAPA valley will be alright.

    This weekend, my daughter is leaving home as an adult and going to live in Los Angeles. Her dad is driving down from Oregon to SoCal. My wife will follow after by plane.

    It’s gonna be a shit show I suspect with rain and snow the entire way down.

  32. 32.

    Eunicecycle

    I saw Garland pantsed Foghorn Leghorn (Sen. John Kennedy) when Kennedy accused the DOJ of harrassing parents complaining at school board meetings. Garland calmly explained that DOJ was investigating people threatening violence at school board meetings, not parents using their First Amendment right.

  33. 33.

    Jharp

    @Scout211:  “ It was really quite pretty. The super cold weather and freezing temps overnight are just not right”

    I’ve lived in the Great Lakes states for more than 60 years. Even the snow belt east of Cleveland.

    We like the snow. Yes it can be beautiful. And yeah it can be too much sometimes but not lately. I say this as long as you don’t have to drive it in. That changes everything and it is awful.

  35. 35.

    Burnspbesq

    The Santiago Peak (aka Saddleback Mountain) webcam is offline. Gee, I wonder why.

  36. 36.

    Dan B

    @Almost Retired: I visited a former Seattle roommate in LA at Christmas one year. It got to 50°. There was a heat lamp in the ceiling in the bathroom.  I wished for long underwear.

  37. 37.

    Burnspbesq

    It must have been difficult for Garland to moot-court for his appearance today. There aren’t many people at DOJ dumb enough to convincingly simulate a Republican Senator.

  39. 39.

    Scout211

    @HumboldtBlue: Most of those videos and pictures actually look like the graupel that we had on Monday. It’s a hybrid snow/hail/ice/slush. The local tv weather people are hyping the new “cool” weather word.

    It doesn’t really matter, though, because it starts out as snow and then changes as it falls.

    Graupel is actually an interesting mix of snow crystals and ice, no matter what Merriam-Webster calls it. Graupel should not be confused with sleet, which is sturdier and more frozen; graupel occurs when a snow pellet falls and is encapsulated by ice. Sounds like hail, right? Well, it isn’t hail. Not exactly.

     

    Graupel begins as individual snowflakes formed in the upper atmosphere. The snowflakes then fall through a layer of supercooled liquid droplets, which causes the raindrops to “rime,” or instantly freeze onto the snow crystals at temperatures of 32 degrees Fahrenheit (-17 degrees Celsius) or lower. The end result is graupel: Graupel is tiny, white pellets that resemble small hail but which, unlike hail, remain soft and crushable.

  44. 44.

    TriassicSands

    A brief rundown on Republican questioners:

    Cruz: Rude, a complete asshole, shouting OUTRAGE.

    Hawley: Rude, a complete asshole, like others listening to answers is out of the question.

    Cotton: Rude, a complete asshole. See Hawley.

    Blackburn: Rude, has a extreme aversion to listening to answers. At least she didn’t shout.

    Grassley: Had to read every question. At least he didn’t shout.

    Opie Kennedy: He plays his tiresome country boy routine to the hilt. He’s not rude, but despite pretending to be polite, he doesn’t listen very well. Answers are irrelevant.

    Cornyn: Rude. Obnoxious. (Nobody beats Cruz in that department).

    Tillis: The only Republican senator who was polite and respectful. He used his time to talk rather than ask questions, but it set a standard that no other Republican could come close to matching. I don’t agree with his politics, but his behavior was in stark contrast to that of the other GOP senators.

    The WINNER: Cruz. Others may try but they simply can’t approach his level of STUPIDITY and OUTRAGE!!!

    Garland’s performance: He’s a decent man, but he was clearly rattled by the constant rudeness and outraged play-acting of most of the Republicans. It’s hard for me to criticize his performance, but things might have gone better for him if he’d simply demanded he be allowed to finish a sentence. Instead, he became visibly shaken and as we know, that just empowers bullies. The only Democratic senator (that I am aware of) who commented at all about the behavior of the Republicans was Hirono, who remarked about “badgering the witness.”  Garland may be a fine AG, but he’s not the ideal spokesperson to appear before a pack of ravenous hyenas. I felt sorry for him, but once again wished he had a bit more grit. He tries within the limits of his personality, but those limits are very real.

  46. 46.

    VOR

    @TriassicSands: This is the problem when one party consists of people whose goal is to get more TV time and leaves all the actual governing to the other party. Sometimes it seems like these guys would rather have a show on Fox News than be a US Senator. Oh, if only they could be as influential and important as Sean Hannity!

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