William Barr

9 XI 2020: Oh no, I was in the Resistance!

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has asked in a Tweet a very important question: “Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future?” and predicted: “I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future.” I agree. I believe we are going to see a phenomenon here such as occurred in France after the Nazi occupation during WWII. All kinds of people who favored and supported the Vichy regime claimed they only appeared to support Petain, that they never really liked the Nazis, and that they were in fact secret members of the Resistance.

My reference to Vichy France is not outlandish. Support for the Vichy government and the Nazis was not a political point-of-view, but was, rather, a collaboration with evil. That is how I view Trump’s minions and collaborators, like Rudy Giulliani, William Barr, Lindsey Graham, Matt Gaetz, and Ron Johnson., how I view the Republicans in the Senate and the Boys in the House. Those immediately involved in the Vichy Government would be analogous to Trump’s atrocious “political appointees,” figures chosen not for any competence they have, but only for their willingness to collaborate in the subversion of the government of the United States. Trumpism is not a political movement, but a pathology.

Some Frenchmen supported Petain because he promised to “make France great again.” Others backed Petain and the Nazis because they were vigorously anti-communist. They endured willingly the elimination of their civil liberties, rejection of France’s republican past, and alliance with a patently evil regime, an alliance that made them complicit in the slaughter of many patriotic French men and women and the extermination of the Jews. But agreement with the Nazis on one issue, the Bolshevik threat, somehow enabled them to overlook atrocities of every kind.

This too sounds quite familiar. Trump claimed to be “pro-life,” presented himself as a stalwart defender of “religious liberty,” and vowed to be a resolute defender of “gun rights.” Various groups, the myopic Right-to-Lifers, the pseudo-evangelicals who want to be the state religion, and the half-mad throng of gun nuts, were driven by their passion about these single issues to ignore Trump’s ignorance, his amorality, his and his family’s corruption, the corruption of all around him and of the Republican Party. All these American Trumpers, from senators down to people in the street, are responsible for the near destruction of the United States’ democracy. Continuing antagonism would prolong the Trump Era, but the American people must not be allowed to forget the irresponsibility, gullibility, and lack of a civic conscience of these people.

17 IX 2020: Barr continues attempted destruction of law

Attorney General William Barr has decided, it seems, to let more than his belly hang out. He’s urging prosecution of the Mayor of Seattle. A report of his speech at Hillsdale College where he was speaking on “the constitutional hurdles for forbidding a church from meeting during Covid-19” reports: “‘You know, putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,’ Barr said as a round of applause came from the crowd.”

That he would be applauded for such pandering at Hillsdale College, a hive of religious and political reactionaries, is not remarkable. But his silliness drew a very different response from Rep. James Clyburn: “You know, I think that that statement by Mr. Barr was the most ridiculous, tone-deaf, God-awful thing I’ve ever heard … It is incredible that (the) chief law enforcement officer in this country would equate human bondage to expert advice to save lives.” It once would have been incredible that the Attorney General would say anything so stupid, but this is William Barr, Trump’s attorney, on a retainer paid by the U.S. Government. 

Barr rivals Trump and his minions in the spread of misinformation, always with a sanctimonious tone that makes him the darling of the religious right. Indeed, on Sept. 23 Barr is to receive an award at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast for “Exemplary, Selfless and Steadfast Service in the Lord’s Vineyard.” Really? I thought Bill the Hangman had been smashing the grapes. The National Catholic Prayer Breakfast is an annual reactionary binge where people who are more authoritarian than Catholic gather to celebrate their loyalty to the extreme right-wing. Barr’s receiving an award at the Breakfast is as unsurprising and as disgusting as his receiving a big round of applause at Hillsdale.

14 VII 2020: Billy “the Hangman” Barr

Finally, finally, Billy Barr has “got his man,” “made his bones,” or whatever gangland expression might apply to judicial murder. Billy and others like him have shown amazing patience. They’ve waited 17 years to execute a federal prisoner. Authoritarians with less self-control would have been unable to endure so long a delay and would by now have hosted any number of semi-official lynchings. But Billy the Hangman and Sheriff Trump have waited patiently, using the delay to build up their supply of lethal injections. And now, at last! The only flaw I can see is that the victim was not electrocuted, for if he were to be electrocuted, Billy and Trump could have thrown the switch from the Oval Office. 

To prolong the execution high, Billy has scheduled two more executions for this week. Off course, Billy and Trump are not the only ones getting off on the prospect of future executions. A very considerable portion of Trump’s base has been longing for a return to the good old days of capital punishment, for in these times of sudden and unpredictable change it’s so comforting to get back to “the way we used to do it.” Trumpists everywhere are rejoicing, so we can be sure that Trump will look for ways to stoke this grassroots enthusiasm. Public executions at a Trump rally would be ideal, but are not feasible because of bogus social distancing. However, executions could be shown on real-time television using the protocols of professional football coverage, and there would be no shortage of Trumpists who would want to do the play-by-play.