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and honestly that's the part that stings most -- accountability wasn't just about punishment, it was about *deterrence*. skip it once and you're basically sending an invitation. Hungary's a cautionary tale but at least Orbán didn't have a first act to learn from.

Let's hope that once Democrats take control of Congress and the presidency in 2028, they don't make the same mistake twice.

This is why Biden deserves to be thought of as nothing but a cog in the wheel that created this mess. Joe Biden should have spent every dime of his political capital on a scorched-Earth cleanse of MAGA from the country.

Reminds one of President Obama and the Great Recession actors....

USA are rotten to the core, fundamentaly, and not even a democracy.

American Democrats are nearly as stupid as the GOP morons.

As a European looking in it's fascinating to watch what is happening in the US. It's a almost a replay of Germany in the late 30'. Only it's on steroids. The Republicans are not gonna give up their power the peaceful way...think about it.

What happened with Nixon laid the foundation for all of this. I didn't live through Nixon, but I learned the lessons people Biden's age should have remembered in their bones...

Hungary's not fixed - replaced Orban with a guy with similar policies and better PR.

Republicans, like all authoritarians, believe that laws exist strictly for use as weapons against their enemies. They cannot conceive of laws applying equally to everybody. I'd argue that America is well past the point where the law is at all relevant to what happens.

10+ years is a lot to clean up. Lots of minds have been brainwashed in that time. Lots of lies have been spread. And the destruction of norms and societal expectations have been thrown out the door.

The lack of accountability is what separates us. All of us know Clinton and Bush should have been held accountable. All of us know Wall Street mortgage bankers should have been in jail, all us of know Trump should have been found guilty twice by the Senate and removed from office. We’d be in jail.

I just realized earlier that 1 James Clyburn was a hugh help in getting Biden elected 2 Biden appointed Garland 3 Garland gave trump a free pass to run for re-election 4 Trump was re-elected and pushed for redistricting 5 Clyburn may lose his seat

I have to believe that Biden & others knew exactly what was going to happen because it was OBVIOUS. Those who didn't know weren't paying attention.

The mistakes after the Civil War, Watergate, and Iran Contra are the same ones that let the felon get away with an insurrection, many other crimes, and an ongoing coup. He was indicted but we never got the accountability that should have put them behind bars for life, there's many reasons why not.

The ultimate fault lies with the Supreme Court for putting their thumb on the scale of Justice.

A judicial system shouldn't be political. Judges have to be independent. That's not the case in the US!

The next Dem President must learn from Trump-- move fast and don't be nice to those who aren't nice. Whenever Democrats take the high road Republicans win. Nice guys Lose. We need another FDR. Not another Biden.

the south? 🙃

The GOP thanks you for blaming Ds and Biden rather than the idiot voters on the left and the right who made this all possible.

Actually, nobody's "fixed Hungary" just yet, and there's a risk that nobody of influence will even try to.

That's exactly right. Two buckets of “democracy” are enough. Richtig ausgedrückt. Zwei Eimer Farbton Demokratie langt.

Things would be better now had Nixon been allowed to spend a couple years in prison.

healing without accountability just let the rot fester deeper. real change means dismantling the systems that enabled him, not just a trial. that's why hungary's fix was simpler - stronger foundations to rebuild on

Yeah, the 'turn the other cheek' crap is BS. Merrick Garland was a weak AG who slow walked Trump's prosecution. Total failure. Our next President and AG need to be a bull dog who goes for the throat.

Shut up.

That's a dirty lie. Read Jack Smith's report. Garland started the investigation the moment he was sworn in. He collected millions of pages of documents, interviewed hundreds of witnesses, and had more than a dozen cooperating witnesses BEFORE Smith was appointed Special Prosecutor.

Simple answer. Because a plurality of Americans are dumb as a post.

It's going to be especially hard with the damage he/they have done. It'll take years but we're going to do it right this time & make America better for all of us. What used to be norms will need to be written in2 laws, so that nobody has to experience this dictator lawlessness BS ever again.

Being an Institutionalist, Biden hurt us. He believed in the system and process above all else and that made him a decent man. His not recognizing the system and processes were skewed if not broken gave us trump.

They made the same mistake with the Confederacy and here we are. Accept nothing less than justice.

We’re America. We always do it harder.

I totally disagree, especially about about Biden- so Biden follows the law - and we shouldn’t blame the voters for not voting in 2024 are the ones who decide pro Palestine was more important- the 🗳️ are the ones that put him in offers to do with Biden so I totally disagree with what you’re saying

Biden...ugh...

Merrick Garland - where is garland hiding in shame

Why? C.J. Roberts is why.

Biden + Merrick left the good old boy gate open for all this because if orange dude was the black dude we would not have this problem. Black folk came out in droves and voted for Biden to stop the foreseeable only to be betrayed by passive weakness.

Prison...should have happened

Double the House of Representatives. Require non-partisan redistricting commissions in each state and prohibit redistricting between census years.

Anyone advocating for capitalism is inherently advocating for the violence of poverty. From my perspective, both Republicans and Democrats have aggressively perpetuated a system that implicitly creates inequality.

The Dem establishment’s shunning of the left is the reason they are a minority party in a country that aligns more with left policies (USA left anyway, not convinced most Americans would embrace European left).

Agreed

#epsteinfiles

Comparison to Nixon is incomplete. Circumstances were very different. If Trump had no way to come back, maybe the comparison could hold.

The conditions that prevented reform under Biden, a corrupt Supreme Court & a Republican party that continues to jam legislative fixes, were in place before Biden got there & will remain unless we can win supermajorities in Congress.

yes, the six super GOP Project 2025 justices should be removed immediately when it is possible. They ALL lied to Congress and are making 💩 up for the billionaires.

All future candidates had better have a plan to remove and arrest everyone involved in this regime’s criminal enterprise. We either have law and order or we don’t.

Robert McNamara, too. (No personal interest.) Astounding.

And where it is….the inflection point where the left turns on itself and fucks itself into oblivion. Get ready for generational fascism.

Trump is not the disease. He is merely the symptom. If Trump wound up even in jail, another MAGA asshole would take his place and threaten our democracy. I don't think people have any clue how dark and deep this is. Still.

Indeed.

Johnson

At the moment we really have to focus on getting the orange fascist criminal out Everybody keeps talking about elegant ways to cross a bridge that's still hundreds of miles away

The words of Jamie Raskin and even Trump's own niece, Mary Trump, echo here: if we don't hold him accountable now, he will only get worse. We are watching this in real time and in broad daylight. Is it wrong to wish that Democrats could be as vicious as Republicans when the situation warrants?

To be fair, Biden was part time

...soon outside the White House

The US does this repeatly, throughout its history, of not holding the elites accountable .. will you ever learn? History doesn't think so

You do not let a narcissistic sociopath off the hook as it empowers them and makes them feel untouchable.

Biden's mistake was appointing as AG Merrick Useless Garland, who took forever to indict Trump and got played by Trumpist judge Cannon with support from Trumpist SCOTUS, legacy of Selfish RBG.

No more Mr Nice Guy and I mean democrats Too many believe in the old rules of playing fair.

Accountability is required for healing. Must have that first.

Exactly. Dems wanted to move on and were afraid to decisively confront a party that thad attempted a coup and was subverting Democracy. That can't happen again.

No. Los level thugs were prosecuted and now are all free. People planning and inciting the riot are all back in power.

I know you idiots want a politicized Justice department because you don't understand how important a separation of powers is. But the voters screwed up so badly and your desire to give them a scapegoat is part of the rot that has infected the electorate.

I will NEVER forgive!

The short answer is, Trump interpreted it as weakness and evidence he could repeat the scam. Once successful, there would be no holding back. The media failed to critique him. They enabled him. They were too busy making money.

President Biden did a lot of good stuff. But - His handling of the admin who came before him (be extra fair and impartial, go slow, don't look "too political", promote redemption) was then, and is now, a total clusterfuck.

Nothing a few guillotines won't set right.

That is what did it. He really should’ve punished the bankers & not just w/fines. It needed to have been tangible and visible & not just the low hanging fruit of names & people the public will forget within 30 seconds (American’s collective memory is 💩 on stuff like this). Big names. Big bankers.

I've always voted Dem. I don't vote third party.

*DEFUND

Americas problems predate and go infinitely deeper than Trump. He’s a symptom 🤷‍♂️

I blame Merrick Garland, Moscow Mitch, and the Supreme Court. Joe Biden made it clear that he would not intervene with the DOJ—and that is how it should be. Unfortunately the pedophile doesn’t respect the rule of law.

See what happens when you do the right thing.

right? we tried the whole 'let's move on' thing and look where it got us. you can't heal a garden without pulling the invasive species out first. roots and all, or they'll just grow back stronger. learned that in my herb garden.

Moreover all of these things -- changing the voting rules in the Senate, changing the number of Supreme Court justices, admitting states for the purpose of changing the composition of the Senate -- have been done in the past. None of these things would be totally politically novel in this country.

The "we go high" days are long gone. We need to fight fire with fire. Use the tools SCOTUS gave Trump! To hell with unity. They hate us for no reason except to stay in power and rob us blind. Gullible fools will never understand what damage they have done voting Trump.

Clear this can’t be resolved the traditional way. In previous empires, it always finish with the death of the emperor and his minions. The rule of law don’t exist in the U.S. or any rules.

It is always a bad policy to forgive people devoted to destroying you. It was a mistake after the Civil War. It was a mistake after Iraq. It was a mistake with Trump. Someone please learn from fucking history. Prosecute high crimes.

All well and good but if we had already gotten rid of the filibuster-we would be in far worse shape today. Until the American electorate can show it has critical thinking skills (good luck…) that is a gamble that should NOT be taken.

They look like the Macarena guys.

Also white Americans really want to keep America white...

You are also ignoring the deep structural changes that Orban made to Hungary. Hungary is only barely a democracy. Such changes have only started here in the US. This absurd statement about Hungary really undermines your credibility.

I can’t look at his face, makes me sick!!