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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Pushback!

Pushback!

by Cheryl Rofer|  February 13, 20205:47 pm| 97 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, NANCY SMASH!, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel

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Donald Trump tweeted that he thought that the sentence proposed by the prosecution for Roger Stone (7-9 years, taken from the guidelines) was too harsh. And within a few hours, Attorney General William Barr was ON IT!

This rang alarm bells for all those who feel that the process of justice does not emanate from the President through the Attorney General, including a great many lawyers who have worked in the Department of Justice. The four prosecutors in Stone’s case resigned.

Today, ABC’s Pierre Thomas interviewed Barr, who told Trump to back off.

Or maybe the message was “I can’t do this if you keep saying the quiet part out loud.”

Here’s the bit that ABC has released so far.

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s intervention an abuse of power.

Also,

BREAKING Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of Washington also issued a rare statement responding to President Trump’s attacks on Stone’s sentencing judge, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, and defending the integrity of the courts. https://t.co/LhicnjBjNx pic.twitter.com/MSiNthX3lS

— Spencer Hsu (@hsu_spencer) February 13, 2020

Things are probably pretty tense inside the Justice Department, part of why Barr is saying those things.

Will be interesting to see how the Tweeter-In-Chief responds.

Open thread!

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Reader Interactions

97Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    February 13, 2020 at 5:54 pm

    I’m impressed – much of Democratic Twitter seems to understand that this is just Barr running cover for trumpov and/or trying not to get himself impeached.  There’s no disagreement here.  trumpov has already weighed in saying he’s not mad with Barr at all for his statements in this interview.

    ie, just more Barr lying in the service of the World’s Worst Human Being

  2. 2.

    Cheryl Rofer

    February 13, 2020 at 5:56 pm

    JUST IN: WH reax to Barr interview ? pic.twitter.com/vURAvPscBq

    — Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) February 13, 2020

  3. 3.

    Cameron

    February 13, 2020 at 5:56 pm

    It’s impossible for him to do his job?  He’s not doing his job anyway.  What’s the difference?

  4. 4.

    Cacti

    February 13, 2020 at 5:57 pm

    And we’re taking what Barr said at face value because?

  5. 5.

    Cheryl Rofer

    February 13, 2020 at 5:59 pm

    @Cacti: I’m not. If you want to, go ahead

  6. 6.

    MJS

    February 13, 2020 at 5:59 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: It will be interesting to see how long before Trump contradicts this sentiment. It may not be via tweet- it could be on his next walk to the helicopter, but the contradiction is coming.

  7. 7.

    jl

    February 13, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    @Jeffro: “just more Barr lying”

    OK, that is unfair. Barr isn’t exactly outright lying, just not making entirely crystal clear what he means by ‘doing his job’.

    If doing his job was what he was actually supposed to be doing for his job, Trump’s tweets would be far less problematic. He could just make clear he was ignoring them, and all other improper attempts at interference, and most importantly, act accordingly.

    Hope the Democrats keep hammering the fact that Barr is not acting accordingly.

    I wonder if the Trump-Barr dog and pony show will be of interest to the moderators at the next debate. If not, the candidates should talk about it anyway.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    February 13, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Yup.  Like I said, this is all very well planned out and rehearsed.

    Some House subpoenas directing Barr to appear well before March would seem to be in order…

  9. 9.

    MattF

    February 13, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    Barr has to keep a lid on the Justice Department, that’s his job.

  10. 10.

    MisterForkbeard

    February 13, 2020 at 6:02 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: I’m glad people are recognizing this is just Barr lying.

    Barr says he can’t do his job if Trump keeps this up, but Barr is literally continuing to rig things for Trump as we speak. This whole thing was clearly Barr pretending to have some independence from Trump and Trump pretending that he’s okay with people saying ‘bad’ things about him.

    Glad to see no one is taking it seriously.

  11. 11.

    Cheryl Rofer

    February 13, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    @MJS: That’s what I thought as I read the WH statement.

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    February 13, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    @MJS: He won’t contradict it.  He’ll just repeat it, smiling, knowing that – per his internal prime directive – he’s getting one over on the Dems and no GOP Senator or Senators will call him out on it.

    “Oh sure, absolutely, I hear what AG Barr is saying, sure, and I respect him as a wonderful, independent, amazing Attorney General…”

  13. 13.

    JPL

    February 13, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    It’s time for him to face Kamala Harris under oath and repeat the same garbage.

     

    @Cheryl Rofer: Shocked.     I knew he gave trump a head’s up.

  14. 14.

    Cheryl Rofer

    February 13, 2020 at 6:04 pm

    So you’re saying the president was bothered by Barr’s comments. https://t.co/qMXvrz8ZcG

    — Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) February 13, 2020

  15. 15.

    JPL

    February 13, 2020 at 6:05 pm

    How many in the DOJ will buy this crap is what is unknown.

  16. 16.

    MattF

    February 13, 2020 at 6:08 pm

    OT. Only $300.

  17. 17.

    randy khan

    February 13, 2020 at 6:11 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I can’t imagine why we would assume that Grisham’s comments reflect what Trump actually thinks about this.

    Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump actually is steaming and is one tweet away from firing Barr because he doesn’t actually understand what Barr is doing here.  (I won’t be surprised if he isn’t, either, but people definitely have been fired for less in this Administration.)

  18. 18.

    E.

    February 13, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    @JPL: Not unknown. Notice Barr was pretending to be vigorously defending his staff and their independence but had to admit he has not spoken with the four prosecutors who withdrew or left the Department.

  19. 19.

    JPL

    February 13, 2020 at 6:14 pm

    @Cameron: Seems to me that if he felt that way, he’d hand in his resignation.

  20. 20.

    kindness

    February 13, 2020 at 6:17 pm

    Who’se head is on a pike now?

  21. 21.

    Bill Arnold

    February 13, 2020 at 6:18 pm

    Reposting from one thread below:
    Stories about William Barr in High School:

    He was like this in high school pic.twitter.com/fUl9cAnkhB— Adam Tebrugge (@adamtebrugge) February 13, 2020

    (An image of an old newspaper piece.)

  22. 22.

    Just Chuck

    February 13, 2020 at 6:18 pm

    @MattF: Bleach will do a pretty good job at killing Coronavirus too.  Gives me a marketing idea…

  23. 23.

    Redshift

    February 13, 2020 at 6:19 pm

    In line for the Warren event in VA, and it is nuts. More later.

  24. 24.

    Cheryl Rofer

    February 13, 2020 at 6:20 pm

    Never interrupt a black bag job by yelling across a dark alley to ask how the black bag job is going & yell some more to ask if there’s time to hit Arby’s on the way back from the black bag job.

    It kinda makes the role of the guy pulling off the black bag job untenable.

    — Keyser Soze (@KeyserSozeBro1) February 13, 2020

  25. 25.

    Geminid

    February 13, 2020 at 6:20 pm

    @randy khan:  I think at this point Trump needs Barr. Like he needs Pompeo and Mnuchin. And I think his lizard brain knows it. Trump’s destructive, dangerous and scary, but I think his position is precarious and he knows it.

  26. 26.

    Cheryl Rofer

    February 13, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    MITCH MCCONNELL on BILL BARR's tweeting comment:

    “The president made a great choice when he picked Bill Barr to be the attorney general and I think the president should listen to his advice." pic.twitter.com/lGZxA6asnb

    — JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) February 13, 2020

  27. 27.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 13, 2020 at 6:22 pm

    You pretend to hit me and I will pretend to cry.

  28. 28.

    Martin

    February 13, 2020 at 6:22 pm

    @JPL: Anyone who can’t see through this has no business investigating or prosecuting crimes.

  29. 29.

    Yutsano

    February 13, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Never change Yertle. Never change.

    Wait no. Lose your race in November. That change you can make.

  30. 30.

    JPL

    February 13, 2020 at 6:31 pm

    @Martin: Twitter tells me that they probably won’t since he admitted interring in the Stone case.

  31. 31.

    Mary G

    February 13, 2020 at 6:31 pm

    Barr and Twitler are playing good cop/bad cop on this. Having US attorneys quit is a feature, not a bug, because the more they push out the more they can replace with Federalist Society lackies who will happily prosecute the president’s enemies. If Barr does consent to testify to either Judiciary Committee, which I doubt he even will, he will lie his ass off about coordinating with the White House and Susie Collaborator Collins will furrow her brow and nothing else will happen. Nadler needs to paper the place with subpoenas and get the battle going in the courts.

  32. 32.

    FelonyGovt

    February 13, 2020 at 6:32 pm

    This is puppet theatre. And clumsy puppet theatre at that.

  33. 33.

    ziggy

    February 13, 2020 at 6:35 pm

    @randy khan: This, I think her statement is aspirational. Of course now we know his minions just ignore him when he tries to fire people.

  34. 34.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 13, 2020 at 6:37 pm

    Barr seems to be able to think strategically, so I can see him realizing Roger Stone isn’t the hill he wants to die on.  I can also see Barr realizing the Muller report was far as he dare pushes it.

  35. 35.

    Amir Khalid

    February 13, 2020 at 6:41 pm

    @MattF:

    Is this that colloidal silver concoction that turns you Smurf blue?

  36. 36.

    Baud

    February 13, 2020 at 6:43 pm

    This is a show for the Supreme Court and Roberts.

  37. 37.

    Dan B

    February 13, 2020 at 6:44 pm

    It’s good to see that Trump’s hungry id / ego is causing as much trouble for stealthy law / constitution burners like Barr.  Who will be next in trying to dial back the insatiable braying of Trump?  Mt bet used to be on Pompeo but that may be unlikely unless there’s a tweet from the all-too-white House declaring war on Iran.  Putin will probably call Donnie off Putin’s allies, the Mullahs.

    And I hope for a loud grassroots campaign to haul Barr in front of congress by next Tuesday.

  38. 38.

    Mary G

    February 13, 2020 at 6:46 pm

    @Bill Arnold: Everyone should read that piece. Barr and a couple of other guys bullied the writer in high school because he was Jewish and supported civil rights. It talks about the many horrible things Barr had done after that, including supporting the notorious  anti-abortionists Operation Rescue, because long hairs at Columbia had infringed upon his constitutional right to attend his college classes by protesting the Vietnam War. The chair of the Judiciary Committee, one Joe Biden, congratulated him on his “refreshing candor” and his first nomination to AG, for GWHB in 1991, passed out of committee unanimously approved by all members. The writer quite properly calls out the Democrats for that. Hopefully some enterprising reporter can find that Biden fellow and ask him WTF?

  39. 39.

    Gelfling 545

    February 13, 2020 at 6:48 pm

     

    @Cacti:

    I have yet to see someone who is.

  40. 40.

    Dan B

    February 13, 2020 at 6:48 pm

    @Geminid:  The consensus on malignant narcissists is they will not stop.  Are the Jarvankas keeping him from lobbing bombs?  Is he still being sedated?

  41. 41.

    Gravenstone

    February 13, 2020 at 6:49 pm

    Shorter Barr: ‘I’m helping you, Donald. Shut up and let me!’

  42. 42.

    Dan B

    February 13, 2020 at 6:51 pm

    @JPL: I like the ring of “interring in the Stone case.”  That sweet melody of da mafiosi!

  43. 43.

    Martin

    February 13, 2020 at 6:52 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Yes.

  44. 44.

    Gelfling 545

    February 13, 2020 at 6:52 pm

    Barr’s had 4 resignations & has Trump spilling the beans all over Twitter.  I’m wondering if he troubled to say anything at all because he’s concerned about outright revolt in the ranks.

  45. 45.

    Gravenstone

    February 13, 2020 at 6:52 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Trump spokesweenie trying to lay down a marker before Trump himself can weigh in. You can bet the actual tweetstorm will be extra salty.

  46. 46.

    Kent

    February 13, 2020 at 6:53 pm

    Obviously Trump could pick up the telephone in the Oval Office, get Barr on the line, and tell him EXACTLY what he wants done in private.  He is the PRESIDENT after all.

    So why instead does he tweet away in public like he is still some outsider to the government that he actually runs?

    Because Barr isn’t the intended audience of those tweets.  All the other lower level folks up and down the Justice Department who might be working on the next indictment, and all the folks in the FBI working on maybe the next investigation.  THEY are the audience.  Trumps repetition is setting a tone for everyone else to follow.

  47. 47.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 13, 2020 at 6:53 pm

    To everyone who thinks this is just a show:  On Barr’s side, sure, but Trump is not this strategic, as he has proven a thousand times, and he HATES to be contradicted or maligned in any way in TV.  This is the Insecure asshole who has regular meetings where his staff has to tell him how great he is.  He is also the asshole whose staff regularly issue professional sounding denials of Trump’s latest tantrum before we even find out about it.

    Trump is mad.  Whether he can get over it is another matter.  Barr has been so over-the-top loyal Trump can maybe let this one go.

  48. 48.

    bemused

    February 13, 2020 at 6:54 pm

    Barr very annoyed trump is shouting and blabbing their plots. Good luck with that Barr.

    I just read a local letter to editor who used that old excuse for hating people who get government aid which is taking away from the letter writer. I’m having a brain glitch for a term for that belief and it’s not “one man’s gain is another man’s loss”.

  49. 49.

    Jeffro

    February 13, 2020 at 6:54 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: excellent

  50. 50.

    Mary G

    February 13, 2020 at 6:55 pm

    This really seems like it should be a bigger story. Via @JRubinBlogger: The New York City bar goes after William Barr https://t.co/QTcAHSWyYg Via @PostOpinions
    — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) February 13, 2020

  51. 51.

    FelonyGovt

    February 13, 2020 at 6:55 pm

    I don’t have much use for Bloomberg, but he has Trump’s number.@realDonaldTrump</a> – we know many of the same people in NY. Behind your back they laugh at you &amp; call you a carnival barking clown. They know you inherited a fortune & squandered it with stupid deals and incompetence. <br><br>I have the record & the resources to defeat you. And I will.

    sorry Twitter embed fail- hopefully you can read it

  52. 52.

    Kent

    February 13, 2020 at 6:55 pm

    @Gelfling 545:Barr’s had 4 resignations & has Trump spilling the beans all over Twitter.  I’m wondering if he troubled to say anything at all because he’s concerned about outright revolt in the ranks.

    They don’t care about the resignations.  That’s a bonus because they will have a whole bunch of Regent University evangelical wack jobs waiting in the wings to fill those spots.  If they were Trump loyalists they wouldn’t have resigned.  Saves the trouble of purging them like Bush’s folks did.

  53. 53.

    ziggy

    February 13, 2020 at 6:57 pm

    @Dan B: I think it’s a combination of sedating medication, keeping him busy reviewing supportive media, preparing re-tweets, doing his own make-up and hair, and taking phone calls from suck-ups. That would be a full time job. Oh and flushing 15 times after every dump.

  54. 54.

    bemused

    February 13, 2020 at 7:04 pm

    @bemused:

    Finally remembered the term, zero sum game.

  55. 55.

    Mary G

    February 13, 2020 at 7:06 pm

    Barr/Trump call and response is very fine Kabuki theater, and MSM is applauding appropriately.— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) February 13, 2020

    Smart journalist.

  56. 56.

    JPL

    February 13, 2020 at 7:07 pm

    @Dan B: haha   The fe disappeared but I like that take better.   Maybe bash him with an iron on the ninth hole.

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    February 13, 2020 at 7:08 pm

    @FelonyGovt: I was about to post a comment suggesting that this thread be called The Pushback Dance, since it was clearly choreographed.

    After reading your comment, I think that this should be the title instead:

    Pushback Puppet Theatre

  58. 58.

    Cheryl Rofer

    February 13, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    @WaterGirl: If you read the post all the way to the bottom, there is some real pushback out there too.

  59. 59.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    February 13, 2020 at 7:11 pm

    @Mary G:

    There you go. A motive that makes sense.

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    February 13, 2020 at 7:16 pm

    @Mary G: I sure hope this is a big Joe Biden deal.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    February 13, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: I had to check to make sure I had read the whole thing to the bottom, and I had done that, at least.

    I suppose I figured that Nancy Pelosi’s statement would be ignored, and then in my outrage at everything about this and everything else this week, I forgot about the statement by the Chief U.S. District Judge!

  62. 62.

    Cheryl Rofer

    February 13, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    Zero. His record is clear. https://t.co/RSIYfR3dyB

    — Rep. Val Demings (@RepValDemings) February 14, 2020

  63. 63.

    debbie

    February 13, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    Will there be pushback against Trump’s proposed executive order requiring that federal buildings be built in the neoclassical style only?

    The architectural world is reeling over President Trump’s call for traditional designs for new Federal buildings. His proposed executive order is called “Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” it takes an out-with-the-new, in-with-the-old approach to architecture, calling modern federal buildings constructed over the last five decades “undistinguished,” “uninspiring” and “just plain ugly.”

    Sounds to me like he’s hoping for his own Reichstag.

  64. 64.

    Just Chuck

    February 13, 2020 at 7:25 pm

    @Mary G: I really want to see the headline “NY Bar Disbars Barr” if only just for that headline.

  65. 65.

    Just Chuck

    February 13, 2020 at 7:25 pm

    @Mary G: The problem with mass resignations is that disgruntled ex-employees tend to talk to the media.

  66. 66.

    WaterGirl

    February 13, 2020 at 7:26 pm

    I am pretty pissed right now at people like Preet and Chuck Rosenberg and all the people who assured us that Barr was a professional who would understand and respect the office of Attorney General.

    I know Preet said it and I think that Chuck Rosenberg did as well, thought I am not as certain.

    It’s the same thing again, just like with Kavanaugh – once you reach a certain status everybody vouches for everyone else, even if they don’t actually know the person is good.

    edit: I say this as someone who really likes Preet and Chuck Rosenberg.  But dammit, they have failed us on some of this.

  67. 67.

    Kent

    February 13, 2020 at 7:27 pm

    @debbie: And that’s probably the least-bad executive action he’s taken this month.  When you weigh it against other actions like opening up Bear’s Ears National Monument to oil drilling and politicizing science in the EPA.

  68. 68.

    Mike in NC

    February 13, 2020 at 7:28 pm

    @debbie: Can’t deny that Trump is an expert on all things garish and ugly.

  69. 69.

    Kent

    February 13, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    @Just Chuck: They don’t even care about that.  It will just make their case that they were partisan Democrats who were U N F A I R to Trump and needed to go anyway.

  70. 70.

    Geminid

    February 13, 2020 at 7:30 pm

    I always figured that the CIA must have opened a file on Trump no later than his 1985 trip to Moscow, and it’s probably fairly thick by now. NSA maybe also. Can anyone with more perspective comment?

  71. 71.

    bemused

    February 13, 2020 at 7:30 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    I’ve actually heard Rosenberg say on msnbc twice that he was dead wrong about Barr.

    I just don’t get how Rosenberg and others didn’t get Barr’s number until he started working at the WH.

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    February 13, 2020 at 7:38 pm

    @bemused: I am shaking my head.  Literally.  I just don’t get it, either.  He was a slime during the Clinton impeachment stuff.  Seems to me he has been a slime for a very very long time, and I want this kind of fucking blindness to stop.

  73. 73.

    dexwood

    February 13, 2020 at 7:39 pm

    @Geminid:  They could, but they’d have to kill us.

    Sorry, couldn’t resist the obvious joke. Off to dinner, relax.

  74. 74.

    Geminid

    February 13, 2020 at 7:39 pm

    @Dan B:. Yeah, he’s a narcissist, but I think he must have some sort of lizard brain survival instinct. He’s a career criminal who’s skated close to the edge for decades and not gone over.

  75. 75.

    Shalimar

    February 13, 2020 at 7:41 pm

    Nancy Pelosi is only half-right.  Even if Trump didn’t intervene, it is still an abuse of power.  Barr has known Stone since the 1980s.  Attorneys General do not intervene in low level DoJ prosecutions to help their friends.

  76. 76.

    Geminid

    February 13, 2020 at 7:42 pm

  77. 77.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    February 13, 2020 at 7:44 pm

    What is even happening?

     

    Lou Dobbs attacks Bill Barr, suggests he's part of the "deep state," calls the Justice Department "rancid, corrupt" pic.twitter.com/PzjnieGrlK— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) February 14, 2020

  78. 78.

    Shalimar

    February 13, 2020 at 7:49 pm

    @WaterGirl: I heard Rosenberg vouch for Barr on MSNBC during the confirmation hearings, so you are correct about him too.  He has since apologized and said he got it completely wrong, but I really wanted to hear Melber push him further and ask him how he could  have fucked that  up given everything in Barr’s past.

  79. 79.

    Another Scott

    February 13, 2020 at 7:51 pm

    (Haven’t read the other comments yet.)

    If it’s impossible for him to do the job, then he should resign – rather than running to ABC to give an interview.

    We know President Crimey isn’t going to stop Tweeting, so…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  80. 80.

    jl

    February 13, 2020 at 7:52 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Madness.

    Madness is the natural endpoint of this kind of personal authoritarianism

    If they want to eat themselves, that is good, IMHO.

    John Adams, crusty old second president, wrote about this. He said the next stage is that they all try to be the biggest most abject and slavish cheerleader and attack each other for lack of enthusiasm, and for any implication (real or manufactured) of disloyalty and deviationism.

  81. 81.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    February 13, 2020 at 7:54 pm

    You have to admit, Bloomberg has good twitter game.

     

    If it's any consolation, Trump's tweets make it impossible for him to do his job, too. https://t.co/0bgL7BT6Pg— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 13, 2020

  82. 82.

    jl

    February 13, 2020 at 7:57 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes, in some ways Bloomberg is very good.

    But in other ways, he and his team need some work. A few tweets below is a brag about 600,000 voter ‘interactions’ whatever that means.

    Maybe they need the data processing people out of the communications messaging team?

  83. 83.

    Bill Arnold

    February 13, 2020 at 7:58 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    I don’t watch Fox/Lou Dobbs. Is he always like this? In that segment he’s utterly detached from any reality but the utterly detached wingnut Trump-cultist reality. E.g. the “American people” supported, according to polling, impeachment and removal of DJT. Unless Lou Dobbs believes that those Americans are not really Americans, he’s factually incorrect.

  84. 84.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 13, 2020 at 8:00 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Barr criticized the champion of white supremacy and suggested that there are limits beyond which it is unacceptable to cheat.  The modern conservative movement is based on seething resentment at putting up with those sins.

    Assholes demand to be praised for being assholes.  Barr defied Cleek’s Law.  He did not Own the Libs.

  85. 85.

    WaterGirl

    February 13, 2020 at 8:02 pm

    @Shalimar:

    but I really wanted to hear Melber push him further and ask him how he could  have fucked that  up given everything in Barr’s past.

    I would love to see that question posed, and hear the answer.

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    February 13, 2020 at 8:03 pm

    @jl: Being good at tweeting, especially if you have a record that’s not good, and you are not truly a Democrat, does not a good Democratic president make.

  87. 87.

    Mandalay

    February 13, 2020 at 8:03 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Cute, but I’m not at all convinced that Bloomberg necessarily writes his tweets.

    Of course if he gave interviews we could see just how sharp and witty Bloomberg is, but he’s too busy for that.

  88. 88.

    Chris Johnson

    February 13, 2020 at 8:28 pm

    @Redshift: Nice! Looking forward to hearing more :)

  89. 89.

    debbie

    February 13, 2020 at 8:33 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Good. They eat their own.

  90. 90.

    Another Scott

    February 13, 2020 at 8:47 pm

    @debbie: GovExec:

    […]

    The order encompasses all federal courthouses and agency headquarters, all federal public buildings in Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area – what’s called the National Capital Region – and all federal public buildings that cost more than US$50 million to build. The order would apply to the design of all new buildings, as well as to all renovations or additions to existing buildings.

    It’s meant to overturn the existing “Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture” issued in 1962 by future Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Rather than dictating a single style, Moynihan’s principles emphasize the importance of diverse “designs that embody the finest contemporary American architectural thought.”

    In fact, they specifically suggest that “development of an official style must be avoided. Design must flow from the architectural profession to the government” – which is exactly the opposite of what Trump’s mandate is trying to do.

    So who’s behind the executive order?

    It was drafted by the National Civic Art Society, a conservative nonprofit that promotes the classical tradition in architecture, urbanism and the arts. The group considers modernist architecture to be “a failure” and endeavors to “help architecture return to its pre-Modernist roots.” The National Civic Art Society claims all forms of modern architecture “reject traditional standards of beauty and harmony. Indeed, ‘beauty’ is a forbidden word,” and notes that some leading modernist architects were fascists, racists and evinced a “hatred of democracy.”

    ‘Classical’ can mean many different things

    Many U.S. government buildings – from the White House to the Supreme Court Building – were built in the classical style. According to the executive order, because the style alludes to the architecture of “democratic Athens and republican Rome,” it is able to “physically symbolize” the nation’s self-governing ideals. On the other hand, the order and the NCAS characterize buildings built since 1962 as “undistinguished… uninspiring … and even just plain ugly,” citing popular opinion polls as proof.

    And yet, critics have been quick to point out that the classical style doesn’t always symbolize democratic ideals of self-governance.

    Dictators, plutocrats and autocrats have long used the classical style to connect the grandeur of the Roman empire to their own power. Hitler, Stalin and Kim Jong-Il all favored classically inspired buildings.

    In the United States, there’s a strong classical tradition in not just the capital but also in the South, where plantation owners were keen to build their mansions in the neoclassical style – and where this architectural tradition is still alive and well. For example, we see it in buildings like the recently completed Federal Building and Courthouse in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Yet it’s difficult to avoid the fact that many of these neoclassical estates – these purported symbols of democracy – featured separate quarters for slaves.

    […]

    Be Best!!

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  91. 91.

    James E Powell

    February 13, 2020 at 9:07 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    He was a slime during the Clinton impeachment stuff.

    Being a Republican slime during the Clinton administration was a great career move for people like Comey, Kavanaugh, and more that I don’t wish to name because it makes me sick to do so.

  92. 92.

    jonas

    February 13, 2020 at 9:12 pm

    Of course when Barr complains he “can’t do his job,” because of Trump’s tweets, he means “subvert justice to serve Trump’s personal interests without attracting undue Congressional and media scrutiny.”

    Trump keeps saying the quiet parts out loud and it’s cramping Barr’s style.

  93. 93.

    jonas

    February 13, 2020 at 9:16 pm

    @Geminid: John Schindler claims there’s an entire room of compact shelving in a secret sub-basement of the Hoover building dedicated to Trump, but then again virtually nothing Schindler has claimed about Trump and the IC has panned out. If there is a bunch of shit on Trump, they seem perfectly content to sit on it.

  94. 94.

    Ella in New Mexico

    February 13, 2020 at 9:30 pm

    Well, well, well. Looks like Lou Dobbs is jockeying with Hannity to become Trumps biggest Official Ass Licker.

    Andrew Lawrence
    @ndrew_lawrence

    Lou Dobbs attacks Bill Barr, suggests he’s part of the “deep state,” calls the Justice Department “rancid, corrupt”
    https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1228111943954784256?s=20

    Wonder how this will turn out for Barr.  Multiple “Fake News is lying about what you heard Barr say in that video” Tweets and press releases forthcoming I’m assuming.

  95. 95.

    Sab

    February 13, 2020 at 9:31 pm

    @debbie: He’s probably angry about theMuseum of African American History at the Smithsonian being so popular.

  96. 96.

    Ruckus

    February 13, 2020 at 9:44 pm

    @Cameron:

    He’s not doing the job we think he should be doing. He is trying to do the job that trump hired him to do, which trump has no right to do. But trump is even making doing the job he was hired for extremely difficult and that’s not the one he’s getting paid to do.

    Cheryl said it well.

    Or maybe the message was “I can’t do this if you keep saying the quiet part out loud.”

  97. 97.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 13, 2020 at 9:49 pm

    @Shalimar: Chuck Rosenberg may not like trump, and I respect his respect for institutions and the rule of law, but something tells me trump was the first Republican presidential candidate he didn’t vote for, at least it would not surprise me to find out that’s the case.

    ETA: My interpretation of the Barr interview: You reach trump by going on TV. This was Barr saying, I’ve got your back, I will do everything you want, including things you don’t know you want, because you are dumb and I am smart, but pipe the fuck down. I got this. Don’t make it harder for me to carry your water.

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