Barr may have known about the Hunter Biden investigations prior to the election…
…and kept mum about it.
That doesn’t surprise me at all, if true. My reading of Barr is that he’s an old-fashioned by-the-book guy, and that although he sometimes acts as if he understands the enormous stakes, he still feels he must follow the rules.
Those old rules used to go like this:
Barr may have kept a lid on the investigations to avoid breaking a Justice Department rule. The Washington Times noted that “Justice Department guidelines prohibit disclosing or opening politically-charged investigations within 60 days of a presidential election. It’s possible that Mr. Barr was worried of running afoul of that rule.”
Of that, and of his enemies blasting him for trying to influence the election. Of course, keeping it under wraps influenced the election as well.
Most of you will probably disagree with me, but I don’t fault Barr very much for this. It wasn’t his responsibility to reveal it, or at least it shouldn’t have been his responsibility. The responsibility and the fault lies in the MSM for spiking the Hunter Biden story that was dumped in their lap, and for social media for blocking it as well. The New York Post spread the word, but the left successfully suppressed and/or discredited the Post. I never expected Barr to break the rules and comment, even though some part of me wishes he had done so. However, if he had, I think the left would have successfully established the idea that he was biased and shilling for Trump.
It’s the old old question: how do you fight against a group that fights incredibly dirty? How dirty do you get? If you keep your hands clean, you lose to that group. If you dirty your hands enough, at what point do you become too much like that group?
I don’t have the answers, but I have the questions.
Barr is in limbo for me. He could be a naive guy overmatched. He could be another kind of Swamp Thing
Blowing the opportunity to return fire on RussiaGate I find unforgivable.
Exactly what I was worried about has happened. By hook or by crook, Biden is most likely the next president and the Barr/Durham investigation gets filed in the round receptacle.
Does anyone really believe Durham will be able to mount a serious investigation on the Biden administration?
The standard criticism from the right about Barr (who is clearly a decent man and who almost always says the right things) is that, as the cliche has it, he is all bark and no bite. His reluctance to say anything about the truly massive amount of evidence that our recent election was rigged and stolen is a damning indictment of his character at a time when the future of this republic is truly at stake. Whether SCOTUS will have the courage to take up a case brought by numerous attorneys general and supported by half the GOP in the House remains to bee seen, but any failure to do so will forever impugn the honesty of the highest court in the land.
I’m with you, Neo, on Barr. I don’t know what the most effective tactics are for fighting this, but I can’t see using banana republic moves to protest a banana republic.
We have five Supreme Court justices who say credibly that they are dedicated to the Constitution. I hope they are.
How do you combat cheaters and those who fight dirty??
You fight them with tactics that are dirtier and more lethal and more effective than the other side; the other side being the side that initially decided to cheat.
If you don’t, you will not only lose, you will perish.
Those who are willing to initiate the cheating and to fight dirty have no compunction about seeing you dead.
They have decided that attaining power – even in a Constitutional Republic – is the ONLY thing that matters. And once they have the power, it is all over for those they declare to be enemies of the state.
So the ONLY option is to kill them first.
If anyone cares, I predict TX wins the SCOTUS case. I’m also predicting Creighton will beat Nebraska in basketball and Nebraska will beat MN in football.
Here’s hoping I’m 3 for 3.
My point, though, is Barr could have done his job legally and ethically by taking action on RussiaGate … but he didn’t.
For me this renders any niceties on Barr’s part moot.
Maybe he’s a good guy playing by the rules; maybe he’s a guy who would have let Hunter slide in any case.
I don’t see how to tell at this time.
I heard a phrase from an author I respect and who writes about the U.S. Empire and its nefarious actions around the world. She writes a bit about politics, as well, and is very well versed on the Deep State and its awesome power. Anyway, the phrase: “You cannot use the swamp to drain the swamp.” Barr/Durham are in the swamp, so they will be loath to do anything to harm (significantly) their fellow swamp dwellers. That’s why people like McCabe, Comey, Rice, etc. have no worries about ever going to jail for their crimes. Granted, in some cases (like McCabe) the Deep State will levy some token consequences to placate the masses, but they will ensure that whomever they punish, lightly, will come out smelling like a rose in the end, either working in a think tank or for the media, something intimately connected to the Deep State. They take care of their own. That’s why so many people want to get their feet into the swamp; it’s both lucrative and safe. Who would ever have thought we’d end up with a government machinery like this one?
Cornhead, Texas has aimed its plea directly at the constitutionalist majority on the Court. Do you think they might be able to persuade Roberts to join, making it 6-3? It ought to be 9-0, but it won’t be.
The SCOTUS has declined to hear the Texas case, saying that Texas does not have standing.
“It’s the old old question: how do you fight against a group that fights incredibly dirty? How dirty do you get? If you keep your hands clean, you lose to that group. If you dirty your hands enough, at what point do you become too much like that group? neo
You fight as dirty as you have to because allowing evil to prevail is not an option.
When both sides fight unethically, it is not how dirty we fight but why we are compelled to fight dirty that determines the good from the evil.
The Left presents itself as fighting for what is right. Their consistent embrace of deceit puts the lie to that claim. Evil often deceitfully claims to be good. Whereas, good has no need of deceit.
The Left’s motivation is absolute power to shape the world as they see fit and they admit to no limitation in gaining the power to dictate to and control other people.
The right’s motivation is maintaining the balance between individual liberty and societal responsibility.
“By their ‘fruits’ shall ye know them…” a 1st century itinerant Jewish preacher
The scorecard of the Left’s fruits are 150 + MILLION dead…
neo: “Most of you will probably disagree with me, but I don’t fault Barr very much for this.”
I’m with commenter “j e”. The stakes are so high. It was incombent on AG Barr to resolve the corruption of the FISA court, to deal out punishment for plotters in the Russia conspiracy and so on. Whatever happened in Las Vegas? How come there’ve been no arrests for the Epstein horror? Some reporting is showing our gov’t had Seth Rich info which it is sittting on.
You can argue the treatment of Hunter’s laptop falls into a “quiet period” category but there don’t seem to be ANY issues where we either
1) See Dems indicted, or
2) Have a full disclosure of facts that shows them to be innocent.
There’s just endless silence.
My 2 c.
Cornhead, I hope your basketball and football predictions work out better for you. So the Supremes found a way to punt.
“Barr may have kept a lid on the investigations to avoid breaking a Justice Department rule. The Washington Times noted that “Justice Department guidelines prohibit disclosing or opening politically-charged investigations within 60 days of a presidential election. It’s possible that Mr. Barr was worried of running afoul of that rule.”
If so, Barr has revealed himself to be a man loyal to the letter of the law even when it betrays justice.
“law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.” Thomas Jefferson
To allow the letter of the law to be used to end the rule of law is for Barr to betray his oath of office. He swore to defend that Constitution from ALL enemies foriegn AND domestic. A fraudulent election upon this scale is a mortal blow to the Constitution he has sworn to uphold. His prior statements reveal that he knows full well that the Left is a knowing enemy of both the Constitution and liberty itself. In his personal life he may well be a good man but if so, given the office he holds, that makes his failure all the more tragic.
“All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.” Edmund Burke
je has the right of it; “His reluctance to say anything about the truly massive amount of evidence that our recent election was rigged and stolen is a damning indictment of his character at a time when the future of this republic is truly at stake.”
You fight as dirty as you have to because allowing evil to prevail is not an option.
Geoffrey Britain: That’s not always true. Not everything has to be a race to the bottom.
The early Christians didn’t crucify Pontius Pilate. The Civil Rights movement got much of its work done before the Black Panthers showed up.
Neo:
We brutally fought the Nazis. In order to win.
But we did not become Nazis in the process, though Bomber Harris with his slaughter saturation bombing is problematic.
But among the enemy, military or civilian, there are no longer any innocents.
War is war, and the fight is for our country. Gotta take the gloves off, and kick below the belt!
The sound Texas appeal to SCOTUS, supported by 17 states, was just denied.
We are heading to a violent separation into two or three countries: the Heartland, the Left Coast, and New England.
Sophistry from huxley, as is usual.
GB is 100% correct.
Pontius Pilate was not evil; he was weak. He asked the crowd what it wanted, and the crowd aka mob said “free Barabas the murderer. Don’t crucify him, and crucify Jesus instead.”
The Black Panthers were not civil rights workers, they were armed, criminal thugs.
Geoffrey Britain, j e:
I’m pretty disappointed in Barr myself. I tend to believe he takes the path of least resistance and the whole careful, judicious pose is a front for not doing anything while looking good.
Sophistry from huxley, as is usual.
Ad hominem from Cicero as usual.
Supreme Court rejects Texas-led effort to overturn Biden’s victory.
“Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections,” the court wrote in its unsigned order.
No justice indicated any endorsement of Texas’ arguments. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas issued a statement saying they would have allowed Texas’ to file its case under a rarely-used procedure for interstate disputes, but they said “would not grant other relief.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/11/supreme-court-rejects-texas-led-effort-to-overturn-bidens-victory-444638
So, we are left hoping against hope for the lawsuits coming in the various states, and for the Republican legislators to put on their adult clothes and take responsibility. I doubt they will.
I’m with neo on Barr. For a while now, he’s reminded me of the generals whom Napoleon kept beating, because he was fighting 18th C style battles.
On SCOTUS: apparently, under our system, there is no legal counter to state actions, in which they violate their own and the US Constitution and laws to rig elections. Judges will not actually allow the cases to be brought to court. Therefore no discovery, and no one on either side is put under oath.
At this point, about the only thing I can see is private investigations, independent of any administrations, to bring it out.
The constitutional republic has been sundered. The weak kneed elites has deemed might makes right. The corporate tech masters has spoken and they have their puppet in Kamala Harris. Biden will be gone within weeks. The Hunter story was released to help start the 25th amendment process. Other congress people will be eased out for younger more progressive
Get ready for:
– Revocation of the SALT cap
– High tax states taxing residents who leave
– Taxation of guns. They are serious about this.
– Paris Accords implemented with a vengeance
– Unchecked immigration and drugs pouring into the country
– Unlimited H1B1 so that the tech masters can keep their work force in servitude
– Further job losses in the middle class, minorities sinking back into poverty
– North Korea testing nukes and missiles
– Iranian back terror strikes in Europe
– Increases in our cost of living with energy, food, tax increases
– Antifa bully boy tactics on those who disagree
– Police standing by while this happens because orders are orders
– Medical care deterioration unless you are connected.
When someone complains tell them that they voted for it and abided by it.
Will we devolve into the Weimer Republic where the Frei Korps kicked in to fight the Communist mobs? Can we put the pieces together when the dust settles? Will we have reconstruction on all the regular blue states? Time will tell. History doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes.
Focus on what you can do. Be armed, be involved and work tirelessly to vet and elect leaders who will stand for right. You know who I favor. Set your face to stone, gird your loins for battle and act with purposeful cold anger.
huxley:
I accused you of sophistry in your remarks about Pontius Pilate and about the Back Panthers. Both charges are true. You are sometimes OK with caving in, it seems, as in your claims about both parties you cited.
But I regret the “as usual” and withdraw that. You are intelligent, and informed on many fronts.
“… whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government….”
If you have the courage to Act upon these words, then it is time to pick a good day to die: Patriots against the Traitors! Arise thee Brave, Good, and noble Fighters! Arise!
One sign that will tell you that the corporate overloads are losing their grip is when the local police and authorities tell them to pound sand they ain’t doing what you tell us to do. Civil disobedience becomes so widespread that they can’t control it. They can try and shape the news but events will overtake them.
From the, “Well, that didn’t take long!” Hints of Texas leading a Constitutional Secession movement:
Texas GOP Chairman Releases Statement Hinting At Secession Following SCOTUS Lawsuit Rejection
National File ^ | 12/11/2020 | Jack Hadfield
Posted on 12/12/2020, 2:44:16 PM by SeekAndFind
“Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.”
Following the rejection by SCOTUS of the election integrity lawsuit from Texas, the state’s GOP chairman has suggested secession could be the solution.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3914651/posts
=. =. =. =
EXACTLY.
huxley,
Emboldened are the key words; “You fight as dirty as you have to“.
If the legal process is sufficient, then there is no need for extra legal measures. If war comes and the enemy limits themselves to the provisions of the Geneva Convention, then that too is a natural limit to how dirty the fight must be.
By its very nature, tyranny is brutal and so, militarily fighting requires a similar ruthlessness. But under no circumstances are the prepubescent targeted. Nor non-violent citizens.
When Sherman attacked Atlanta, the object was logistical strangulation of the South’s ability to supply troops and rapid deployment not tactical defeat of Lee’s army or attacking civilians for revenges sake.
If Civil War II comes, logistics will favor the right and logistics win wars, which is why I have stressed the logistical weakness of the Left. I pray it will not come, but prayer is a hope not a strategy.
Hopefully, you are a bit clearer of where my mindset lies.
Nah, Pilate was a combination of weak and evil. The other sources we have- including his own Stele and Josephus- show him to have been a pretty typical Principate Roman Prefecr, a rather British thug who thought with the Gladius more than with his brain. Things like trooping an Eagle of Jupiter through Jerusalem and organizing a mass beating of protestors for his misusing temple funds for water works (however beneficial those might have been) do not paint the picture of a man who was weak kneed. Which makes the washing his hands both atypical and highlights his hypocrisy.
Even assuming he did not help stage manage the rejection of Barabas’s crucifixtion himself, and how one cannot simply “wash your hands” of culpability for mob violence and murder when you have the capacity to intervene, even considering how he had command responsibility for the Roman troops who crucified the Christ , it is ironic that it is this of all times that he decided to respect Jewish public opinion.
Pilate was evil- or at least no less evil than the average Roman provincial military dictator and probably a great deal more- even more than he was weak. And the Bible’s account of him washing his hands reminds me a great deal of the solo s of cities like Portland who have their police oppress the average person and political enemies while enabling domestic terrorists they prefer.
@Montage: Supreme Court rejects Texas-led effort to overturn Biden’s victory
Let me fix that for you (and Politico):
Supreme Court rejects Texas-led effort to challenge the media’s coronation of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden amid ongoing media blackouts of election contests and evidence of electoral fraud
I think this is a better outcome for Trump. As I understand it, Texas asked the court to force the state legislatures to choose the electors. There is no guarantee that they wouldn’t still choose electors for China Joe and the Ho. That would pretty much end it for Trump I think. I believe he needs the electors to be in dispute on the Epiphany.
I’m very, very upset. The FBI did nothing to investigate election crimes. Rudy and his team somehow lost 50 plus lawsuits. How does that happen?
The Dems will steal the GA Senate seats. One party radical rule. Goodbye, Republic.
This is a disaster. The election was stolen and no one could stop it. Lawless.
Cornhead: “This is a disaster. The election was stolen and no one could stop it. Lawless.”
Only if We The People refuse to hang together. Together, we cannot be Ruled. The fist test is uniting AGAINST the Fraudulence: do you Believe in the Super Happy BribeMe Vote? That Magic?
And aren’t there ongoing surveys to find this 2X Bidet vote in certain Big Cities precincts? Because if they cannot survey and fine them, were their “votes” real? Or magical?
Unite, then FIGHT against these Traitors! Together, we win.
You’re right, of course Cornhead… But the Republic has been dead for a longish while. One could debate precise Time of Death, but that’s a bit academic since it was by a thousand cuts.
It’s just that now there is no denying it. The Constitutional Republic is in Norwegian Parrot Territory. Kaput.
What is to be Done about it is really all that is relevant at this stage.
Corpse Reanimation is probably not the way to go.
It’s not even particularly worth trying to apportion blame for the present historical currents which have brought much of the West onto the rocks.
A Republic requires Requires Republican Virtue. There is precious little of that floating around in the ether at present and the getting of more Republican Virtue would require several generations of Hard Times. And even then, at the Best of Times as soon as harsh selective pressures are removed, Republican Virtues become an optimistic warping of human nature into something it really isn’t. Whalebone Corsets don’t stay in vogue for very long. Pretty soon you’re back to Flappers and then body piercings where the sun don’t shine. We’re not a pretty species. And we need institutions and ways of managing the will to power which don’t try to flatter our vanities by hiding this fact.
Some Jeffersonian Arboriculture is certainly called for. Actions must eventually have consequences. That works both ways, and being committed focuses the mind and beats long fretful evenings in the House on the Embankment waiting for the knock on the door.
Longer term, now to avoid repeating this dreary cycle… Doubt we can. We’re all too human — except for some Silicon Valley Mutant Overlords who should be mulched as first order of business.
TJ:
Secession’s looking pretty good to me now.
I wonder if they’d take immigrants? I can prove my conservative bona fides.
Winning the battles in life that are worth winning, is never accomplished by the faint of heart, nor is it accomplished by those who dither over philosophy. These battles are won by those who are determined to win at all costs. It does not dirty a man to win. How he conducts himself after winning, determines his mettle. The reason we won WWII was precisely due to our willingness to level the worst damage – fire bombing, atomic bombing, etc – to annihilate the enemy. And then we rebuilt their countries.
Republicans as we know them, are simply not willing. They are in a position of personal comfort.
I think this is a good piece by Selwyn Duke called “The Time for Talking with the Left is Long, Long Past”: selwynduke.com
He mentions projection by the Right, i.e. thinking that the Left is honorable because we are.
Zaphod:
The people who cowered in the house on the embankment didn’t have Glocks in their nightstands and AR-15s in their closets. True, the Chekists probably had Tokarevs, but they used them on themselves when the 3:00 AM knock came, or pre-emptively. Amazing how little resistance there was, even from people who knew what was coming.
I think you are confusing the rottenness that is D.C. with the rest of America. If the people I currently live among are anything to go by, any attempt to repeat the Great Terror will play out very differently here, in the way that Solzhenitsyn wished it had in the Soviet Union:
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?”
Although unsuccessful legally, the Texas suit brought clarity to the situation. It also attracted allies in other states and showed that the spirit of liberty is alive and well in large parts of the country. This 2016 map of Trumpland and the Clinton Archipelago is still accurate, I think:
https://www.inverse.com/article/25635-map-remakes-us-trumpland-clinton-archipelago
If anything, Trumpland has gained population. Cornhead lives in one part of it; I live in another. There are millions of us who would be happy to devote ourselves to re-building and protecting a constitutional republic among our states. After all, we have a pretty good working model with a 240-year history of success. And we know what mistakes not to make. The job now is to get out from under D.C.
Neo:
I suspect the Great Sorting is about to begin in earnest. Consider getting a place down south or in the heartland, or move. It’s still free there, and likely to stay that way. We’d be happy to have you.
@Hubert:
I’m of the opinion that a C18 Enlightenment Collection of Words is hardly a basis for re-founding society in C21 with very different stock. Unless, of course you hold that it’s a ‘Living Document’ 😛
I get that it’s different between the Coasts.
But reverting to Whigism Lite (Muh Constitutional Republic) just means that one climbs arduously back up the slippery slope and perches on a very narrow ledge until the first person pokes us in the back with a feather or a butterfly flaps its wings behind us… and then slowly at first we begin to slide back down.
But we can agree to differ on this without resorting to clubs and knives, so I guess that puts us both inside a very broad church with the devil worshipers banging on the door. First order of business is for all men of good will is to slay the devils. The Details Schmetails finer print can abide for now.
“I think you are confusing the rottenness that is D.C. with the rest of America.” – Hubert
There was a very interesting post at Politico that some of you may have read, as it was one of Power Line’s Picks. It doesn’t have the usual relentless knee-jerk leftist spin (although it’s still clearly written by a Democrat), and illustrates a trend in North Carolina which, combined with the testimonies of the Tejanos who voted for Trump despite being “Hispanic” (they say they are just Americans), bodes well.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/10/robeson-county-rural-rainbow-coalition-north-carolina-trump-republicans-443978
It’s a long read, of the anecdote plus analysis genre familiar from dead tree publications, but well worth the time.
Here are two choices for the Texas trend. I think Politico is trying to do a not too subtle nudging of the Democrats about where they are failing. Now if only some honest conservative Republicans in DC will also read them….
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/17/trump-latinos-south-texas-tejanos-437027
https://pjmedia.com/election/bryan-preston/2020/11/19/tejano-vote-not-latino-key-to-trumps-gains-in-south-texas-n1160393
Good read from Jim Treacher. Very much an “I told you so.”
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/jim-treacher/2020/12/10/so-hunter-bidens-laptop-was-real-after-all-huh-n1202565
Oliver T’s post by Selwyn Duke is at two sites.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/12/the_time_for_talking_with_the_left_is_long_long_past.html
https://selwynduke.typepad.com/selwyndukecom/2020/12/the-time-for-talking-with-the-left-is-long-long-past.html
Neo’s readers will probably enjoy more of his musings.
Except Montage, of course.
Also worth perusing…the ellipses cover his long lists of the abuses we all are familiar with, but which apparently half the country had never heard of.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/12/the_district_of_corruption_has_overplayed_its_hand.html
Well – that was interesting – the Moderator didn’t like all the excerpt.
So here is some more of it.
Will third time make the charm?
And now the bottom line – edited until I can redact whatever the Moderator is objecting to:
Yep – what a prude!
I had to look up the REDACTED reference; evidently, 7 & 2 is the worst hand you can possibly be dealt, and if you win with it, you are totally awesome.
https://www.liveabout.com/worst-starting-hands-in-texas-holdem-2728435
Zaphod:
“Between the coasts” is a bloody great chunk of the country. Did you take a look at the Trumpland map? Does that look like “a very narrow ledge” to you? Looks like seven-eighths of the country to me. At least.
Don’t like “Constitutional Republic”? Too C18-fusty for you? OK, call it “a normal country where normal people can live freely and without excessive molestation from the State”. Normieland, as Kurt Schlichter might put it. The last two elections have shown that there is strong market demand for such a place. There are a lot of normal people living in the blue blots and crusts. Give them someplace decent to move to, and they’ll move. I’m confident that our side will be the beneficiaries of the Great Sorting.
“Very different stock”. Ah. I think I see the problem. Not a Yank, then? This country was built by and with the Wrong Sort of Stock. My grandparents were very much the Wrong Sort of Stock, especially in your book (I’m a member of that tribe of congenital subversives, or however you put it). A few posts ago we saw video of a woman from the Wrong Sort of Stock with a funny name and accent deliver a civics lesson to a panel in Michigan. She also faced down a member of the feral Left. More like her, please. An American is anybody who values liberty above all else and pledges allegiance to the principles embodied in that fusty piece of C18 parchment. Stock don’t come into it.
“But we can agree to differ on this without resorting to clubs and knives, so I guess that puts us both inside a very broad church with the devil worshipers banging on the door. First order of business is for all men of good will is to slay the devils. The Details Schmetails finer print can abide for now.”
F**king A. We’re on the same side. Let’s stop squabbling over semantics and start talking practicalities. And props for the Trifonov reference, by the way:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_on_the_Embankment
I worked with people who grew up in that world. That’s how I can recognize the smell. The American equivalent would be the Watergate complex on the banks of the Potomac.
AesopF:
Thanks for the links. The Selwyn Duke piece is spot-on.