Tag: Bill Barr

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Appeasing the Mighty Oz

CREDIT: REUTERS | Brian Snyder

Was it really just a week ago that I was sitting up late with politics editor Jackson Baker and Flyer art director Carrie Beasley (in our own homes) waiting to decide what cover to run for our issue covering the 2020 election results? It seems a month ago now. At least.

We had three covers mocked up and ready to go to the printer, each with an appropriate photo. One was called “Biden FTW!” which we thought would have been a great reversal of our now-infamous (and eBay gold) “WTF?” Trump cover from 2016.

REUTERS | Brian Snyder

And we had one we were hoping never to have to run called “Trump Again!” with a smiling, thumbs-up-waving Don the Con. The third possibility was the one we finally chose: “Too Close to Call!”

Jackson had three versions of the lead paragraphs to the cover story ready to go. And I’d written three versions of my column. My “too close to call” column was titled “The Waiting is the Hardest Part” because, well, I like Tom Petty and why not? It turned out to be one of the most prescient things I ever wrote. I shoulda bought a lottery ticket.

I said if the ballot counting went on for several days, President Trump would do his best to sow discord and divisiveness and doubt about the integrity of our electoral process. Right on all counts.

I added: “Trump will remain in office (win or lose) until January, so there will be at least a couple more months of chaos and drama, of tweeting and conspiracy theories, and who knows what other kinds of outrages.” Bingo.

There were lots of things I couldn’t have predicted, of course — like Rudy Giuliani and a “witness” who turned out to be a convicted sex offender holding a Philadelphia press conference on a parking lot at Four Seasons Total Landscaping — next to a dildo store. That was straight out of a jump-the-shark episode of Veep.

Another thing I didn’t predict but should have been able to, in hindsight, is that the majority of the GOP leadership — national, statewide, and locally — would go along with Trump’s antics, as would most of Trump’s media allies. As a result, there has been a week-long drumbeat of lies, exaggerations, and false discrediting of the nation’s election process.

We knew, at some level, this was part of the plan. All the pre-election polling had Trump losing, so blocking people from voting became Job 1. The U.S. Postal Service was enlisted to delay delivery of mail-in ballots. The number of voting sites and drop-off boxes were systematically cut in red states. Numerous last-minute lawsuits by GOP operatives were filed to try to disqualify various kinds of ballots not cast on Election Day.

Sowing doubt on the counting process was Job 2: GOP legislatures in key states (Michigan and Pennsylvania, to name two), passed laws requiring local election commissions to refrain from counting mail-in, drop-off, and absentee ballots until Election Day, thereby ensuring several days of drama as the mandated post-Election Day count played out around the country — days that could be used to spread conspiracy theories and further incite the most rabid of Trump’s supporters.

Imagine how much angst the country would have been spared if other swing states used Florida’s system, which allows counting of mail-in and absentee ballots as they arrive. Florida’s results were basically in on election night. How great would it have been for the country to have been able to go to bed Tuesday night knowing the results of the presidential election, instead of having to wait four days? Really great, is how.

Except that would have spoiled the plan to delegitimize the electoral process, one Trump had been setting up for weeks by refusing to say that he’d accept the results of the election. And now, the game continues. No concession from the president, no work getting done. He’s just firing people, tweeting, and playing golf.

Meanwhile, Biden is almost five million votes ahead in the popular vote and has an insurmountable lead in the Electoral College. If Trump had any integrity or respect for the election process — or a grown-up brain — he’d do the right thing and concede. We shouldn’t hold our breath. My prediction is that when I’m writing my next column a week from now, he still won’t have done it.

The only question is how long will other Republicans play along to appease the Mighty Butthurt Oz.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

This Election Day has been a long time coming.

For months, it has beckoned, a distant light at the end of the weirdly dark tunnel that has been the Year of Our Lord 2020. The past few weeks have been a blur of debates and non-debates, of rumor and accusation, of Joe Biden’s modest masked rallies and events, and of President Trump’s unmasked and unbridled traveling sideshows, where several times a day the president unleashed a blitz of lies, threats, complaints, whines, conspiracy theories, and rambling stories to crowds around the country. Given Biden’s favorable polling, Trump’s performances seemed less a strategy for winning new votes than an airing of grievances to his die-hard base.

But now, the fateful day is here, almost over, in fact. Millions of votes remain to be counted as I write this, but we are going to press at midnight with what we know now — and what we know now is that we have more waiting to do. The totals will be coming in for a couple of days in some states, longer in others.

We’d like to think that the American people have rejected this toxic presidency, this tragic mistake we made in 2016, but we don’t know yet. We do know that President Trump will do his best to sow chaos and unrest in the coming days, win or lose. Buckle up.

And Trump will remain in office (win or lose) until January, so there will be at least a couple more months of chaos and drama, of tweeting and conspiracy theories, and who knows what other kinds of outrages. But while we wait, we should be taking stock of how these past four years happened, how the vaunted American system of checks and balances fell apart like a cheap suit under the duress put upon it by Trump.

We’ve learned that there are intrinsic flaws that can be taken advantage of if a president just ignores the law. This is especially true if he or she is enabled by a compliant majority in either house of Congress or, as has been the case recently, by a politicized Department of Justice. The system is only as good and as honorable as the people we elect to run it.

The U.S. attorney general, for example, was intended by the Constitution to be the steward of justice and law enforcement for the people of this country, a person who would tell the president the truth and stand up for the rule of law. President Trump didn’t see it that way, and after trying several candidates who were insufficiently mewling, finally found one in Bill Barr who would supplicate himself and do Trump’s bidding like a Mafia capo. This should never happen again, whether the president is Republican or Democrat.

Under President Trump, most departments of the U.S. government have been politicized. The Education Department is being run by a woman with no education background who is in the pocket of privatized education, and who had never even been in a public school before taking office. The Centers for Disease Control, once an incorruptible and reliable fount of scientific data and medical guidance, has been turned into a disinformation and propaganda agency, forced to bury scientific data or alter it to suit the president’s agenda on COVID-19.

The State Department, once a bastion of statecraft and international diplomacy, is now merely another arm of the Trump political machine, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo offering political speeches from around the globe, with trusted allies thrown aside, and dictatorial regimes propped up and stroked at the president’s bidding.

The U.S. Postal Service, a department with one job — getting Americans their mail, their medicine, their checks, their letters from loved ones — has become another political weapon, its services and workforce intentionally slowed or reduced in efficiency to serve the Trump agenda of keeping legitimate votes from reaching their destination on time. This cannot stand or be allowed to happen again.

I could go on. The Treasury, Energy, and Interior departments are run by lobbyists in the pocket of those they’re supposed to be regulating. Even the military has been politicized, used as backdrops for political rallies.

But there’s more to address: the suppression of votes — by gerrymandering, by reducing the number of voting places, by arbitrarily cutting voting rolls, by limiting the number of drop-boxes, by unnecessarily rigid voter ID laws that don’t accept student IDs but will take a gun permit. And don’t get me started on that quaint little Emoluments Clause.

So much to be done. So much to fix. This newly elected Congress and Senate have a heavy lift ahead, whether or not Trump manages to win re-election. But there is perhaps a new dawn of sorts on the horizon, and for that, at least, we can give thanks.

And now we wait. The hardest part.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Suffering From Trump-itis?

This president makes me sick. Literally. After enduring relentless night sweats during restless sleep, I felt light-headed and dizzy. Any exertion left me exhausted. I thought a nice shower might help, but I ended up having to lie down while attempting to zen away my rapid, palpitating heartbeat. Walking from bedroom to den was encumbered with an equilibrium imbalance that left me clutching the wall. I didn’t know what was happening to me. I tried to act calmly so as not to frighten my wife, but Melody could see through my charade and suggested we go to the emergency room.

Rather than go to the ER on a Saturday night, we instead called the doctor’s service, which asked if we had a blood pressure monitor in the house. When Melody hooked me up and the cuff finally loosened from my bicep, my blood pressure was off the charts. A Xanax eased the situation until I could call my doctor on Monday. By miraculous luck, someone had canceled their three o’clock appointment and I was able to grab it. When my blood work was suspect, I was sent to a nephrologist, then a urologist, before returning to my primary doctor. The prognosis? Hypertension combined with acid reflux was disturbing my stability.

So, now I’m on daily blood pressure and digestive medications. When I asked the doctor if he had any further instructions, he said, “Turn off the news and play more guitar.”

But it’s hard to ignore or escape the American Horror Story sitting in the White House. After the thoroughly co-opted and corrupted Republican Senate aquitted the president from two articles of impeachment, the gaseous windbag felt emboldened enough to take a couple of victory laps. After President Clinton’s impeachment, Wild Bill appeared in the Rose Garden alone, showed contrition, and apologized to the country for his indiscretions that prompted the R-rated ordeal that followed.

Trump chose to show up at the annual prayer breakfast, ordinarily a non-political event that focuses on faith, and launch a diatribe against his perceived enemies, calling the top FBI officials “scum” and questioning Nancy Pelosi’s faith while she sat just feet away. Trump addressed the gathering declaring: “As everybody knows, my family, our great country, and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people.” He could just as well have been referring to his rotten cabinet that cheered him on.

Appearing in the East Room of the White House after the breakfast, Trump instigated a vendetta against impeachment witnesses that would have made Richard Nixon blanch. Referring to fired FBI Director James Comey as “that sleazebag” and Nancy Pelosi as “a horrible person,” Trump gathered his minions, sent them out on cable TV, and prepared to get some payback.

Gordon Sondland, the million-dollar Republican donor recalled from his post as ambassador to the European Union, was the first victim of Trump’s retribution. Then, “simmering with rage,” as his aides attested, Trump had impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman fired from his position on the National Security Council and escorted by security guards from the White House grounds — along with his twin brother, who had nothing to do with the impeachment, just in case Trump couldn’t tell them apart.

Only a month ago, Trump pardoned an Army soldier convicted of war crimes. Now he’s dismissed a decorated veteran who had earned a Purple Heart in combat. Trump then asked the Pentagon to investigate Vindman for any potential wrongdoing. The Pentagon declined.

The idiot man-child then demanded that the House “expunge” his impeachment, calling the whole thing a “hoax.” Like the Bizarro Superman of comic book fame, Trump protects the guilty while punishing the innocent.

Emboldened by his acquittal, Trump began to purge the unfaithful from his administration, enlisting the Justice Department and Trump’s slavish attorney general, William Barr, to exact revenge on his critics. Trump’s obedient protector immediately appointed an outside prosecutor to examine the origins of the investigation into the former National Security Advisor and disgraced convicted liar Michael Flynn. After that, Barr interfered with the sentencing recommendations of convicted comic villain Roger Stone. All four government prosecutors resigned from the case, prompting more than 1,100 former prosecutors and Justice Department officials to call for Barr’s resignation.

I say impeach his ass again. Seriously. This bloated megalomaniac thinks because he was acquitted by a fearful Republican Senate that he’s home free to continue his work as capo of the Trump crime family. There were at least 10 more charges of obstruction of justice outlined in the Mueller report. They weren’t included in this impeachment go-round because Robert Mueller wasn’t very telegenic and failed to move public opinion. Mueller clearly stated that the outlaw president could not be charged only because of a legal “opinion” that prevents a sitting president from indictment. Mueller told congress, “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.” He never said so. In fact, Mueller reported to the shyster Attorney General that his probe found “multiple acts by the president that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations,” which translates into a profusion of abuse of power.

Mueller’s 448-page report was dismissed after most Americans didn’t bother reading it. I ordered the report in book form, but the print was small enough to require a magnifying glass, and was so dense, it was like trying to read War and Peace in Sanskrit.

It didn’t matter. All of Mueller’s evidence of criminality was ignored. No president in history has been more deserving of removal from office than this counterfeit con man. Until this cruel fool is displaced from our collective reality, I’ll be here at home — playing the guitar.

Randy Haspel writes the “Recycled Hippies” blog.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Just Shoot Me

CREDIT: REUTERS/Mary F. Calvert

Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump has admitted to shooting Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross during a tumultuous cabinet meeting on Monday. Ross, 81, is in a Washington, D.C., hospital, where his condition is listed as critical. Trump tweeted Monday night that Ross “had it coming.” Trump went on to tweet that Ross had “fallen asleep” while the president was speaking about the border wall, and that he wanted to “send a message” to other cabinet members. He then tweeted “NO COLLUSION!” and “HAPPY EARTH DAY!”

Since the Justice Department has issued an opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted, Trump appears to be in no danger of being prosecuted for the shooting.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a briefing Tuesday morning that “the president has been very clear on what he will put up with from his cabinet members. While the president wishes the commerce secretary a speedy recovery, he reiterates that he was well within his rights to shoot Mr. Ross under Justice Department guidelines that a sitting president cannot be indicted. He hopes that Mr. Ross has ‘learned his lesson.'”

On Tuesday evening, presidential spokesperson Kellyanne Conway was interviewed by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “All right, Kellyanne Conway, what’s your take on this bizarre shooting in the White House yesterday?”

“Well, Wolf, the mainstream media is reporting that a bullet struck Secretary Ross in a cabinet meeting. The president takes full responsibility for being in that meeting, but beyond that, what do we really know? Did you hear the gunshot, Wolf? I don’t think so. Do you know for a fact that Mr. Ross didn’t assault the president? Maybe it was self-defense. For all we know, it could have been a drive-by shooting. We just don’t have all the facts at this point, Wolf, but I remain confident in this president and his policies, which are supported by the majority of the American people.”

“Kellyanne, the president has tweeted that he shot Wilbur Ross. That seems pretty definitive …”

“The president was possibly being sarcastic, Wolf. Or it may have been a retweet.”

“[sighs] All right, let’s go to our panel. …  Rudy Giuliani, what’s your response to this surprising bit of news?”

“It’s simple, Wolf. It’s not illegal for the president to shoot someone. In fact, it’s not illegal for him to do anything, if you think about it. If you can’t be indicted, then you can’t be proven guilty, and if you can’t be proven guilty, then you’re not guilty. Simple as that. I’m not saying he did it, but if he did, that’s well within his rights as president.”

Sean Hannity, speaking on his Fox News show later Tuesday night, also defended the president: “I commend the president for taking this bold stand against incompetence. He’s merely doing what he promised he’d do — draining the swamp! When the president speaks, cabinet members should be listening, not sleeping. Do you think President Obama would have had the courage to shoot a cabinet member? Or Crazy Bernie? Don’t make me laugh.”

On Wednesday morning, Attorney General William Barr issued a statement: “The president’s actions — if he took any actions — regarding the shooting of Commerce Secretary Ross were well within the jurisdiction of the president’s powers. We suspect some of the negative reports regarding this incident that have come out in the press are a result of illegal leaks from FBI spies. We also must bear in mind that the president has been very frustrated lately, which has caused him undue stress and may have contributed to this unfortunate but justifiable incident of a stray bullet striking Secretary Ross.”

House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement on Friday: “The House Judiciary, Oversight, Ways and Means, Budget, and Homeland Security Committees will begin hearings on the recent incident concerning President Trump and the late Wilbur Ross (RIP) on Thursday next week. While Mr. Trump’s actions have brought dishonor to the presidency — and are possibly murderous — our hands are tied by the Justice Department’s ruling that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Further, we do not feel at this time these actions warrant impeachment, which would only rile up Mr. Trump’s supporters and divide the country. We think it’s better to leave it to the American people to decide. The 2020 election is only 18 months away.”