Barr Agonostics

 #Elie Mystal, "The Lowest Possible Barr," The New Yorker, July 27, 2020.

Attorney General William Barr "has surpassed every institutional metric in his quest to become the worst attorney general in US history." "The Republican Party has so thoroughly committed itself to the lawlessness of the Trump regime that it does not have the moral strength to remove one of the president's chief henchman mere months before the election." "Republicans have been politicizing the Department of Justice for decades, but every time the Democrats retake power, all they do is nominate decent people, while leaving the structure in place for indecent people to do great harm when Republicans regain control."

#"Barr battles Democrats in Capitol Hill defense," THE WEEK, August 7, 2020.

" 'Indeed, Barr has contempt for the elected lawmakers, because he answers only to Trump and his twitter account,' said Dana Milbank in the Washington Post. He derided protesters as a mob, 'dismisses the idea that there is systematic racism in policing,' though 'black men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police,' and tried to 'pin violence on protesters.' "

#The Trump Presidency has been an escalating series of insults, each enabling greater violations of norms, ethics, and laws. This year, he has removed five inspector generals from their posts, and, with the assistance of Attorney General William Barr, corrupted the Department of Justice to such a degree that we are now unsure of the legal meaning of "guilty" when applied to a Trump-connected defendant. 

#Tom Philpott, "Playing Chicken," Mother Jones, December/October 2020.

"The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a division of the Department of Labor, is legally obligated to compel employees to provide workplaces 'free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or severe physical harm.' " "Previously, the agency's reporting forms required employers to record any muscularskeletal injuries in the catchall category of 'All Other Occupational Illnesses.' " "Between 2012 and 2014,inspectors from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health made alarming findings inside the poultry plants seeking to speed up their lines: In [the two plants investigated],  more than a third of employees showed 'evidence of carpal tunnel syndrome,' along with high rates of  other muscularskeletal maladies."

#Denise Fort and Kyle Tisdel, "Crashing industry hobbles NM," Rio Grande Sierran, July/August/ September 2020.

"New Mexico has put itself into a box with its heavy reliance on oil and gas revenues -- now approximately one-third of the state's budget -- a percentage that increased significantly after tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations were passed." "Every new well that is drilled adds to the legacy of industrial pollution. In New Mexico alone, there exist almost 100,000 historic oil and gas wells, representing billions, if not tens of billions, in clean-up costs."

#Tim Murphy, "True West," Mother Jones, September/October 2020.

"In reality, the [Texas] Rangers instigated a reign of terror in which between 300 and several thousand Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans were killed." "After statehood, Rangers hunted fugitives and committed atrocities against civilians during the Mexican-American War."

"In the decades that followed, the force continued to act as enforcers for Anglo dominance, infiltrating NAACP chapters, blocking desegregation efforts and cracking down on striking farmworkers. In a pattern that repeats itself today, officers fired for abuses often signed on with other law enforcement agencies."

#"Portland protesters and agents claim that 'one day it will go away," THE WEEK, August 7, 2020.

" 'Trump's incursion into Portland is an act of 'stunning overreach,' said 'The Seattle Times.' "  " 'Protecting the federal courthouse is defensible, but sending agents into city streets to use brutal tactics veers into dystopian governance. This is Authoritarianism 101,' says Trudy Rubin in 'The Philadelphia Inquirer.' Rubin goes on to say: 'Despots stoke violence and civil strife to scare their people into supporting leaders who would "protect" them. When faced with peaceful protests they "provoke   chaos," as an excuse to unleash their own violence.' "

#"Homeschooling," THE WEEK, August 7, 2020.

"So many families are organizing 'pandemic pods' of between five and 10 children each, where the parents either take turns teaching lessons or pool their resources to hire a full-time tutor." "They have 'Black Lives Matter' signs in their yards and windows. Parents are going to team up with 'people they know and trust,' said Clara Totenberg in The New York Times. This 'rational impulse' will lead affluent white families to pod together and exclude any black and Latino families. The result will be a society that's more stratified and more deeply riven by 'racial inequalities rooted in white supremacy.' "

#Patricia Williams, "The Color of Contagion," The Nation, September 7/14, 2020.

"Disability rights advocates have been working hard to push those concerns to the front burner." "It is not by accident that Trump's targeted rhetoric to white suburban housewives so neatly sutures race, riot, and disease as ways to channel the existential fear to which we are all so vulnerable right now." "We can divide ourselves up into races and castes and neighborhoods and nations all we like, but to the virus -- if not to us -- we are one glorious, shimmering, and singular mess."

#Jelani Cobb, "Violent Winds," The New Yorker, September 14, 2020.

"But he, [Donald Trump] has said that Rittenhouse [the seventeen-year-old, who fatally shot two protesters, and wounded another in Kenosha, Wisconsin] was likely acting in self-defense, claiming -- without offering any evidence, as is President Trump's habit -- that Rittenhouse would 'probably have been killed by protesters,' so he acted in self-defense."

#The poetess Miya Angelous said that one should trust the first time one hears from a person on a subject. She has said she makes her first impression based on eye contact. "When someone shows you who they are believe them: the first time." This advice applies especially to Donald Trump, who routinely changes his positions if what he initially said draws strong negative reaction. 

ADDENDUMS:

*Attorney Sidney Powell admitted to Judge Emmet Sullivan, after first trying to claim executive privilege, that she briefed Michael Flynn's case to Trump, and she urged Trump not to pardon Flynn.

*The U.S. military has engaged in wars or other combat in all but 11 of its 244 years of existence. The claim comes from a book entitled "The United States of War: A Global History of America's Endless Conflicts" by David Vines.