Having submitted his resignation (or been fired), Bill Barr must now be hoping to rebuild his reputation as a responsible lawyer. At his last press conference as Attorney General, he rejected several of Trump’s vengeful ideas. He sees no reason to seize voting machines. He agreed with Mike Pompeo that the cyberbreach appeared to be attributable to Russia. He sees no reason for a special counsel to investigate election fraud or Hunter Biden.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Outgoing Attorney General William Barr said he saw “no reason” to appoint a special counsel on potential election fraud or the tax investigation into the son of President-elect Joe Biden.
Barr said Monday in his final press conference that the investigation into Hunter Biden’s financial dealings was “being handled responsibly and professionally.”
“I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel and I have no plan to do so before I leave,” he said.
Barr also told The Associated Press in a previous interview that he had seen no evidence of widespread voting fraud, despite President Donald Trump’s claims to the contrary. Trump has continued to push baseless claims even after the Electoral College formalized Biden’s victory.
With a few of Trump’s closest advisors trying to restrain his authoritarian and mad impulses, we have to count down the days until he is out of the White House. There are 30 days until January 20. Bill Barr is leaving December 23. Who knew we would ever rely on him as the voice of sanity in the Mad House? That leaves 27 days for Trump to do something to satisfy his base.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Trying to cover his own a**, but also maybe enough fear of what Trump is capable of doing to try to put a wrench in T’s plans. With Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell as T’s go-to advisors, who knows what he is capable of trying.
Bill Barr must be worried about his future. Like the scoundrel who wants forgiveness on his deathbed, he’s using this proclamation to launder his shameful abuse of his position as AG.
He should have been impeached but since that didn’t happen I hope the American Bar Association disbars him & he can’t practice law in the US. .
DisBarred
If Barr were disBarred
His name would be short
And signing not hard
Just “Bill”, in the court
That’s going to take a laaaaaaaarrrrrrgggge cover!
🙂
Barring Cover
Barring a diet
Barring a sash
Just can’t deny it
Bare is his ass
Trump will explode or implode when he finds out what Barr just did. Hopefully, the huge increase in blood pressure will end Trump.
If Trump survives, I expect he will throw a massive tantrum that includes throwing things at anyone in sight that still works for him, foaming at the mouth, landing flat on the floor, kicking his little feet, and chewing a hole through the carpet.
With Trump’s obsession for getting revenge on anyone that beats him fairly or unfairly or doesn’t do what he wants no matter how illegal or insane that is, William Barr better hire a platoon of bodyguards and go into hiding. He might even want to leave the country and start praying that Trump has a massive heart attack and dies or ends up brain dead on life support.
Wait, I forgot. How can Trump become brain dead, when he has no brain?
Barr and Ghouliani have irreparably destroyed what reputations they had.
Giuliani never had a reputation. Prior to 9/11 New Yorker’s had had enough of his nonsense.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clydehaberman/rudy-giuliani-was-always-this-bad
It is quite clear, as it always has been, that anyone’s claim to have joined or remained in the Trump administration to influence or contain him and his cronies was either hopelessly self-delusional or dishonestly self-serving. Unlike history’s challengers to other brutal dictators, they risked no threat of death, only access to power. it is and was what a former Justice Department lawyer called it today in a NY Times oped (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/opinion/trump-justice-department-lawyer.html): Enabling complicity. The least bad among them deserve condemnation. The worst deserve jail time. That’s how the public denormalized inhumane behavior.
I think the only reason Barr is doing this is because it would backfire. Hasn’t anyone noticed that the Republicans never actually want their accusations of criminal behavior against their “enemies” (usually Democrats but not always) investigated by law enforcement and tried in court?
It has always been about innuendo where any errors or bad decisions by Democrats or other “enemies” are magnified into “crimes”. Thus Colin Powell could advise HRC to use a private e-mail account because he and many Republicans did, but it’s a “crime” when it is discovered (except it wasn’t which is why it was so outrageous that Comey did the right wing bidding and implied that she did commit a crime but he chose not to charge her instead of just acknowledging it.) A Republican Independent Prosecutor could find no crime by the Clintons, so he was replaced by Ken Starr who needed a perjury trap to hide a (perfectly legal) sexual affair to find a crime.
How quickly we forgot the “criminal” Andrew McCabe who decided to call Barr’s bluff and not plead guilty. Barr’s DOJ didn’t even try to charge this guy who was supposedly the mastermind of the plot to get Trump! In Barr’s DOJ, an official expressing a strong bias against any Democrat in an e-mail is absolutely legal but expressing even the smallest bias against Trump is a crime. (There have been recent FOI requests that the FBI finally fulfilled – with lots of redactions – that demonstrate this).
In short, Barr knows that he can’t find a crime when none exists and if he no longer has the power to spin that a democrat saying something negative about Trump in an e-mail is a “crime”, while insisting that blatant criminality by Republicans is perfectly legal.
This is simply Barr hoping to protect himself. I truly hope that the e-mails of the Justice Department IG are now subpoenaed and a close look at how IG Michael Horowitz improperly spun all of his investigations to favor Trump and to slow walk any investigation that Trump and Barr didn’t want. (For example, we are still waiting for Horowitz’ investigation of the Republican FBI Agents who were charged with informing the DNC in late 2015 that their computers were being hacked decided not to actually inform the DNC but to leave a message on an IT subcontractor’s computer help desk voicemail.)
Biden needs to appoint someone like Preet Bharara to investigate Horowitz and other DOJ/FBI officials whose desire to please Trump and Republican leanings meant that they applied a double standard of justice, railroading any non-Republicans for supposed “crimes” to make Trump happy while those same “crimes” by pro-Trump agents and lawyers were condoned as perfectly legal.
It is no different than voter fraud — lots of public smears by Trump toadies but when it comes to court, there is no evidence of wrongdoing beyond regular human errors (which both Dems and Republicans did). But without a sycophant like Michael Horowitz looking to please Barr and Trump by exaggerating any errors that help Trump while ignoring any errors that don’t help Trump, Barr has a real problem and he knows it.
NYCPublicschoolparent, Here’s my holiday gift to you- Medhi Hasan’s recap of Bill Barr’s malignant legacy as AG. I hope the ABA decides to investigate & disbar him so he’ll never practice law again.
Thanks, the former DOJ attorney was especially good. My preference is not for the ABA to disbar him but for Barr and Horowitz and their minions at the DOJ to have all of their communications and actions picked over by a fine tooth comb and charged for every inappropriate action, so that next time a Republican President is in office, corrupt Republicans do not think that there are any restraints on their wrongdoing except perhaps after they have empowered those who will richly reward them, at worst they might get disbarred.
There is a double standard where Democrats are constantly under investigation by partisan Republicans, but Republicans are investigated only by other Republicans and those Republicans need to be completely in the tank and exonerate the Republicans because if they aren’t, they are accused of being anti-Republican! It is truly absurd and it is long past time for that to stop instead of normalized.
Medhi Hasan may be the only media personality left in the U.S. who is an actual journalist.
The first part is Trump telling that he knows more about __________than anyone. [Pick any topic.] I didn’t get very far in the video because the part I saw sort of made me ill.
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‘We Need Brain’: Top 10 Funniest Politics Videos of 2020 | NowThis
Dec 15, 2020
Here were the year’s top 10 videos that made us LOL, many of which feature President Donald Trump.
“In the end, it was a very low Barr.” –Dan Rather
Do the Limbaugh
The bar is low
In Lambaugh game
And Barr , you know
Is just the same
So, Bill Barr jumped in his car,
Looking for redemption.
But speed hump Trump
Called him a chump,
And granted no exemption.
Once you obey his do-wrong way,
Losing soul and reputation,
You best never dare
To ever veer;
Your fate will be damnation.
Bernie makes a lot of sense. The military always get more than it needs. Why do we need two new museums in the Smithsonian NOW? People are desperate and the $1200 wasn’t enough. $600 is even worse. Most people can’t even pay their rent for one month on a $600 check. How many people are going to be evicted from their homes? Who cares? McConnell worked late into the night to give a trillion dollar tax cut to the wealthy and corporations but now, “We don’t have the money.” to help struggling normal people. Disgusting.
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Late last night, Congress passed a $908 billion COVID relief bill that will extend unemployment benefits through the early spring, provide support for small businesses, schools, health care, nutrition, rental assistance, childcare, broadband, and the Postal Service, as well as funding to help distribute vaccines.
This legislation also includes, importantly, a $600 direct payment for every working class American earning less than $75,000 a year or $150,000 for a couple — plus $600 for each child. Let me be clear: this provision was not in the bill just two weeks ago. And, given the enormous economic desperation that so many working families are now experiencing, it is nowhere near enough as to what is needed. But, given the strong opposition of the Republican leadership in Congress and a number of Democrats, it’s no stretch to say that it would not have happened at all without our efforts, the hard work of progressive members in the U.S. House and grassroots progressives throughout the country. Republican Senator Josh Hawley also played an important role.
But let me state the obvious. The total funding in this bill was not even close to good enough, and my fear is that by reaching this agreement we are setting a bad precedent and setting the stage for a return to austerity politics now that Joe Biden is set to take office.
Remember, way back in May, the House passed a $3.4 trillion HEROES Act, which was a very serious effort to address the enormous health and economic crises facing our country. Two months later, the House passed another version of that bill for $2.2 trillion.
That same month, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed a $1.1 trillion piece of legislation that included a $1,200 direct payment for every working class American.
Months later, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, negotiating on behalf of President Donald Trump, proposed a COVID relief plan with Speaker Pelosi for $1.8 trillion that also included a $1,200 direct payment.
And yet, after months of bi-partisan negotiations by the so-called Gang of 8, we ended up with a bill of just $908 billion that includes $560 billion in unused money from the previously passed CARES Act — a worse deal than was previously proposed by Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump.
So we went from $3.4 trillion, to $2.2 trillion, to $1.8 trillion from Trump and $1.1 trillion from Mitch McConnell to just $348 billion in new money — roughly 10 percent of what Democrats thought was originally needed and half of what Trump and McConnell offered in direct payments.
This is not good negotiating. This is a collapse.
It is also no coincidence that as it became clear Joe Biden would become the next president of the United States, we started to hear a lot of talk from my Senate colleagues in the Republican Party about their old friend the deficit.
We couldn’t afford $1,200 for every working class American and $500 for their children because of the deficit.
We couldn’t afford to support state and local governments struggling during the middle of this health and economic crisis because of the deficit.
We couldn’t afford more meaningful and robust unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs during the middle of this pandemic because of the deficit.
Yet, this is the same Republican Party so concerned about the deficit that they passed a $1.9 trillion tax bill benefiting some of the richest people and largest corporations in this country.
This is the same Republican Party so concerned about the deficit that they, just last week, pushed through the largest defense spending bill in the history of this country, a total of $740 billion. This is more money than the next 10 nations combined spend in their defense budgets.
This is the same Republican Party so concerned about the deficit that they spent trillions of dollars on war over the past two decades.
This is the same Republican Party so concerned about the deficit that it gives hundreds of billions of dollars in giveaways to oil, gas and coal companies that exacerbate the climate crisis.
This is the same Republican Party so concerned about the deficit that it provides huge amounts of corporate welfare to companies like Walmart that pay their workers starvation wages and provide them meager benefits that must be supplemented by taxpayer-supported programs.
And during any of these debates, do you recall any of my Republican colleagues asking how these proposals were going to be paid for? I don’t. So forgive me for thinking their sudden display of concern for the deficit seems a bit insincere. More to the point: it’s total hypocrisy!
And our concern at this moment is that no matter what happens in Georgia next month, and which party controls the Senate, we cannot allow this type of inadequate negotiation again on major legislation. Yes. The deficit is important, but it is not the most important thing. At this unprecedented moment in American history, with a growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, and when many millions of Americans are suffering, Democrats in Congress must stand up for the working families of our country. No more caving in.
Today, half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, one out of four workers are either unemployed or making less than $20,000 a year, more than 90 million Americans are uninsured or under-insured, tens of millions of people face eviction, and hunger in America is exploding. Tragically, there is more economic desperation in our country today than at any point since the Great Depression.
We have a responsibility to the struggling families of our country.
And let’s be honest: if we allow Republicans to set the parameters of the debate going forward, like they did in this current COVID relief bill, the next two to four years are going to be a disaster.
Want to expand health care? Where’s the money going to come from?
Want to rebuild our infrastructure? Where’s the money going to come from?
Want a Green New Deal, or even support for Joe Biden’s more modest climate proposal? Where’s the money going to come from?
So the fundamental political question of our time is: are we going to allow Mitch McConnell, the Republican Party and corporate America to return us to austerity politics, or are we going to build a dynamic economy that works for everyone?
My fear is that this COVID relief bill sets a very dangerous precedent for when Joe Biden takes office next month. And we cannot allow that to happen.
Going forward, Democrats must have an aggressive agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class in this country, income and wealth inequality, health care, climate change, education, racial justice, immigration reform and so many other vitally important issues. And in that struggle, we all have a role to play. So please, make your voice heard in the weeks and months ahead. Call your members of Congress, post your thoughts on social media, encourage progressives in your community to run for office, and volunteer and contribute to those who will fight for a government that will work for all of us, and not just the 1 percent and wealthy campaign contributors in this country.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
The bailout also includes tax deductions for corporate executives’ lunches–known as the “3-Martini lunches.”
Diane: Why do corporate people get to deduct for meals? How about putting that money into more stimulus for each American? $600 is a paltry amount that won’t even pay the rent for most people.
The wealthy and corporations got a huge tax cut and these politicians just can’t resist giving them more. How far do they think that ONE TIME $1,200 stretched?
Why do private schools get $2.75 billion?
Poor Trump. Nobody understands him when he creates his own reality bubble. He is a narcissistic demented fool.
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Paranoid Trump Accuses Pence of Betraying Him, Says Report
Jamie RossReporter
Published Dec. 22, 2020 7:12AM ET
Reuters/Cheriss May
Festive cheer appears to be in short supply at the White House. In fact, the final few days of work before the holidays sound like hell on earth. According to a report from Axios, President Donald Trump is lashing out at almost everyone close to him who doesn’t play along with his absurd, baseless conspiracy theories about his election defeat. Those people, according to Axios, now include Vice President Mike Pence. The report says Trump has repeatedly complained that Pence has not been fighting hard enough for him in recent weeks, and has cited a Lincoln Project ad that predicted that Pence will “put the nail in [Trump’s] political coffin.” Other targets of his fury reportedly include Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Read it at Axios
If Pence plays it straight on January 6, certifying the Electoral College decision, Trump will be very angry.
Trump is a sick demented creature who can’t fathom that he lost the election. He is more worthless now than ever. What nasty thing will he plot next? He certainly doesn’t care about the thousands who are dying from COVID daily.
NYT:
Mr. Trump has spent his days watching television, calling Republicans in search of advice on how to challenge the electoral outcome and urging them to defend him on television. As always, he turns to Twitter for boosts of support and to vent his anger. He has not gone golfing since the weather has turned colder, and is cloistered in the White House, shuffling from the residence to the Oval Office.
Many Trump advisers hope that his trip to his private club in Palm Beach, Fla., Mar-a-Lago, will give him a change of scenery and a change of perspective. He left on Wednesday and is scheduled to stay through the New Year holiday.
Sources: Secret Service Has No Plan if Trump Refuses to Go
But they do have procedures for handling trespassers.
Updated Dec. 23, 2020 11:04AM ET / Published Dec. 23, 2020 5:04AM ET
…If past is prologue, Biden will receive the procedural briefing on Jan. 19 and a military aide will be assigned to him immediately, hours before the inauguration. (As vice president, he received similar briefings and the process hasn’t changed, according to officials.)
President Trump’s nuclear authentication card won’t work after the swearing-in. So far as the U.S. military is concerned, it doesn’t matter where the president is; billions of dollars have been spent to ensure the commander-in-chief can execute a war plan from anywhere on earth, even if he can’t immediately occupy the White House. There will be no ambiguity, these officials said, even if Trump were to try something extraordinary. The Pentagon’s command and control centers would not accept his orders.
What if Trump won’t go?
What if he sits down at the Resolute Desk and dares someone to physically remove him? What if he occupies a couch in the residence? The harm here is real, beyond how ridiculous the performance would look to the rest of the world: A functional president requires a functioning office.
Former senior government agency heads and Secret Service detail leaders pushed to think through this scenario offered several plausible solutions. “I think I’d have a conversation with the chief of staff, and then the family, Ivanka and the other kids and say, ‘It’s going to be your job to make sure he’s gone,’” a former senior Secret Service official said.
Another possibility: “When the staff leaves on January 19, don’t let them back into the complex the next day. He can’t do anything without his staff.”
An isolated president, in other words, would be more susceptible to just throwing in the towel.
“I really think it would be up the Republican Party if he were to try something like that,” a second former official said. “The Service and the military would just not want to get involved. It’s not our role.” (Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said there is “zero” role for troops to play in the election or its aftermath.)
A movie ending is not in the cards, either, because the Secret Service’s Presidential Protective Division (PPD) immediately transfers its resources to the incoming president on Jan. 20. In other words, there won’t be a “Biden detail” in a shooting war with the PPD because the PPD becomes the Biden detail the moment the president is inaugurated.
And no one should worry about loyalties, either. The Secret Service’s deputy director, Leonza Newsome III, was the head of Biden’s vice-presidential detail during the Obama administration.
But what would happen if Trump simply said no?
“Well, I guess by law he would be a trespasser,” a former Secret Service agent said. “We’d have to escort him out.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-service-has-no-plan-if-trump-refuses-to-go-sources-say?source=email&via=desktop
White House Christmas Cold Open – SNL
Dec 2, 2017
Saturday Night Live
President Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) is visited by the spirits of Michael Flynn (Mikey Day), Billy Bush (Alex Moffatt), Vladimir Putin (Beck Bennett) and Hillary Clinton (Kate McKinnon).