Bill Barr is the prototypical Project 2025 official. A second Trump term would bring the "Judeo-Christian moral system" he called for back to government, at the expense of our collective liberty.
Barr should have been disbarred long ago for his total lack of ethics in office. He convinced HW Bush to pardon all of his Iran/Contra co-conspirators. He shit canned the Mueller report. He set up the violent removal of peaceful protesters from the park so Trump could take the longest walk he has taken in the last 50 years. He lied to Kamala Harris in his confirmation hearings. The list is long and painful. And yet he, like so many of Trump's co-conspirators, walks free, and would be back, likely again as AG should Trump steal the 2024 election.
Yes. I talk about some of that stuff in my 2019 piece. There was an excellent Village Voice piece that went into all of it. Eye opening. What is most infuriating about Barr is how the media normalizes him. He's, like, an example of a "reasonable" Republican. Please.
Doncha know, he's an older avuncular white guy who speaks in dulcet tones of authority and gravitas. Therefore, anything and everything he says is inherently good and true in the corporate media's eyes, amirite?
Yeah, Roberts is the same kind of snake. He plays at being objective with his "Balls and Strikes" posturing but he's another smooth talking, hard-core reactionary.
People don't know that as a 20-plus year old RW legal warrior in Reagan's first term DOJ, he was gunning to overturn the Voting Rights Act of 1965 THEN. I bet he essentially had an, ahem, erotic reaction when he wrote the Shelby County v Holder decision.
He's as reactionary as the rest of the Seditious Six, but he wants to appear to be more balanced. He doesn't want to have his legacy tied with Roger Taney of the Dred Scott infamy as the worst Chief Justice in history.
It's interesting to note that a central premise of these reactionaries is that their arguments are premised on the claim that the behaviors that they so abominate increase if the consequences are not harsh. If you take the example of drug addiction, there are years of data that demonstrate that whether laws are harsh or lenient, whether drugs are more or less easily available, the rate of drug addiction remains the same. The same is true of the number of gay people, and, absent contraception, unintended pregnancies. What they are really at war with, is human beings and human nature.
Excellent point, Frank, and well articulated. Barr wants more prison, longer sentences, bigger fines, more executions. He has zero tolerance for drug addicts. He thinks homosexuality is a sin. And he thinks more marriages will help the abortion rates, rather than, you know, sex education and easier access to contraception, because he also thinks those things are bad. Meanwhile his old man is writing novels about teenaged girls being raped.
Thanks for this Greg. Too few are aware of Barr's infamous history.
I wouldn't be surprised if sometime in the future the Vatican canonized as saints, Bill Barr, Leonard Leo, Amy Barrett, Kavanaugh, Thomas, Gorsuch, Alito, Scalia, and their ilk. There's a reason why only Catholics are so-called saints.
Well done again Greg......well researched; well articulated in your excellent, balanced presentation..... I guess that you've recovered your brilliant energy and enthusiasm.....thanks!
Thanks, Dennis. My plan was to make it easy on myself and re-run my 2019 Barr piece with a few little edits, and I wound up writing a whole new piece...
Power. More power. Not just plain old power but unquestioned power which leads to more money which leads to more unquestionable power. God willing.Thus it has been thus it will ever be...fascist religious horseshit
While looking up OPUS to put it on pre-order, for some insane algorithmic reason, I was also pointed to Kevin Roberts' book, coming out a month later, and a week after the election: https://a.co/d/3FcpNWA Just reading the synopsis gives me chills AND makes me laugh. It was obviously written before Kamala Harris became the nominee. My overall response to ir is, "Good luck with that."
This crap has been going on for years and it's especially embarrassing that it's now these radical Catholics that are the ones perpetrating it. I was raised a "regular" Catholic, so I have to wonder if in the same way I'm disgusted with these people, if Evangelicals, you know, the "regular" ones (is there such a thing?) are also disgusted by those we see on the regular.
I have a feeling, call it Karmala, that they're, once again, going to be mighty disappointed that they'll have to put their idea of making the United States into some sort of Catholic Iran on hold. They'll keep trying, and they'll keep losing. No one wants this shit except them. They're never going to realize that, are they? Nine hundred pages of Project 2025 tells me no.
Wish Amazon had done a fine job highlighting that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's book, "True Gretch" is NOT the same as the evil "parody" written by a Michigan Rep. Freedom Caucus F#$k with the title "True Gretchen." There has got to be a law against this kind of libel, and I hope she can win $millions in a copyrite suit.
It might be too late now, but I would have DEMANDED my money back from Amazon for BS like that. It's usually a 30-day return window, but they may make an exception to at least get a gift card credit in your Amazon account.
There was an author named, "Stephen King" floating around Amazon a few years ago, and his book covers were designed almost exactly like the real King's books, so a lot of people were fooled. He eventually had to add his middle initial to his name to differentiate his crap books from the real Stephen King. I almost got fooled a few times, but I keep up with what and when Stephen King is going to publish, so I wasn't, but it was a close call!
I'm sure Kevin's book will sell well, because all the rightwing weirdo think tanks will buy a lot of copies. The only thing I can say about him is that at least he's not a bad writer. But who will read the thing? I bet more people hate-read it than read it and agree!
My mom is always pissed at these weirdos for making normal, non-weirdo Catholics looks like freaks. And so am I!
The "problem" IS the Catholic church. If they behaved as Jesus taught, loving everyone, helping all the sick, and all the needy, and fed all the children, and turned all their other cheeks, then, by their shining virtuous example, humanity would be drawn to them, just as Jesus intended. But, instead, they have imposed their will and ideas on everyone (the global reach of the Catholic church through its vassal states and their conquer-tactics on native populations the world over for the past two thousand years, for example). Their will and ideas are the opposite of the Bible's actual teachings. The horrors their will and ideas have caused is incalculable. If they were true Christians, the rest of us would flock to them, but instead, by their own corrupted will and ideas, they have turned us all away from the Church. Bill Barr and his ilk need to reread their Bibles and their dictionaries.
AMEN DESHA! Something happened to the Catholic Church in the early 1970s. In 1970, my priest at my neighborhood parish (assigned to the high school group) gave me the $500 in cash that I needed to get an abortion at the community hospital. I was able to live my life, develop a meaningful career, and have two wonderful children who are now adults, all thanks to that priest supporting my choice. I now live around the corner from a Catholic church that has a sign in front of it saying "Protect life from conception to natural death." So no "death with dignity" to end horrible suffering? I won't even look at their thrift store! I can't imagine how the Church is going to survive if it continues to require adherents to comply with these ridiculous pronouncements from men. Out of 10 people in two generations of our family, only one is still Catholic. Really poor retention rate.
I'm glad to hear, Abby, that you had a good priest who helped you. That is, after all, their job: to help those less fortunate, and in need.
The anti-euthanasia thing -- which Barr talks about in that speech -- is insane to me. Like, what person, suffering miserably and with no chance of survival, would not prefer to die with dignity? I think that, in such a position, 99.9999 percent of humans would make that choice -- including these Bill Barr assholes.
You were so fortunate to have had a great history with your church. I'm Lutheran, and had some mixed results, but I believe, and today, clergy seem to be doing more harm than good. So, keep the faith. Keep your faith!
Thanks, Desha. There is no way to rationalize or explain away all of the horrible things the RCC has done these last 2000 years, from Beziers to the sack of Constantinople to the Inquisition to the implementation of slavery in the New World to the pedophilia. But I will say, as someone who grew up Catholic and went to church A LOT in my youth, the Leonard Leo set is NOT representative of most mainstream Catholics. They are doing the opposite of what I learned Jesus wanted us to do.
Also, the Church is very much priest-dependent. Meaning, if you have a great priest -- and there are plenty of great priests -- you have a good church experience, and if you don't, it can be hell on earth.
Wasn't it Groucho Marx who said he wouldn't join any club that would have him as a member?? (Forgive my paraphrasing.) It's the reverse with churches. Why would I join a church that doesn't value me? Why would anyone?
Yes, and the whole world is counting on this being true. I think once respect and integrity are restored (after Harris is elected) regular people will come back out into the sunshine, and religions will remember what they're all about and help us all go out our doors today and be better people than we were yesterday.
Barr in his speech says that the Founders were all Christians who wanted the country to be Christian -- despite the evidence to the contrary you just cited. SMH.
While Barr may have burnt bridges when he resigned over election fraud, dipshit 45 will not be calling the shots should be be reelected, by vote or subversion. May God forbid this from happening, be it the Opus Dei version or a more normal Supreme Being. Others will decide who is AG.
Hmnn, William Pelham Barr. Pelham as in the 1974 movie, "The Taking of Pelham 123", a train wreck in the making. Is there a Walter Mathau to stop the crash? Not one but many, they are called voters. BTW, this version is a better watch than the 2009 Denzel Washington version.
It seems more and more clear that it keeps coming back to authoritarian vs. a more democratic form of governance.
I don't think religion has to be authoritarian, but the god of Abraham was an authoritarian prick. Maybe that worked well thousands of years ago, but it doesn't work now. People who still want a strongman leader are always in the minority. It also seems like Jesus was more of a democratic, distributed power kind of guy.
If we examine all of the conflict and suffering in the world right now, it's all being caused by authoritarian assholes. We have to wake up and stop giving these people power.
It really is that simple, I agree. Our society right now promotes sociopathy, in business and in politics. I think it goes hand in hand with whatever this stage of capitalism is. Jesus was NOT a capitalist, that much we know for sure.
Yes, and his dad hired Epstein to teach at that private girls school in New York and wrote a twisted, trashy sci-fi yarn that makes me wonder what went down in his early home life. Someday I hope we find out everything there is to know about all of Epstein‘s associates…
The Epstein-Barr connection is very very strange. But I don't think we'll ever know the truth of it. Barr seems like a buy who can keep his mouth shut -- unlike another Opus Dei guy, Robert Hanssen.
Epstein-Barr virus is a type of herpesvirus that cause mononucleosis and is suspected to cause many autoimmune disorders. Very destructive once it’s inside the human body. Coincidence?
The very first place I drove after getting my driver's license was to a rally for JFK when he was running for president. At that time the country was awash with allegations that electing a Catholic would put the Pope in command. My family was half-Catholic, and I thought this really silly.
Now "retrograde" Catholicism is outPoping the Pope. Somehow American culture is advocating killing of women and children? If it were, I'd oppose it, (well, there is unconflicted support of Israel in Gaza...) but somehow that is the same as gay marriage?
I am so SICK of Christianists claiming that they are victims, with the Facebook or music streaming or Toni Morrison sending lions against them, I guess. They want Judeo-Christian morals über alles, with emphasis on Leviticus and nothing about loving thy neighbor or that camel/needle thing or concern for the poor. When Jesus handed out loaves and fishes, was he coddling "personal misconduct and irresponsibility" that Barr so much hates?
When Leo hits the pearly gates, I hope he watches a stream of camels slipping through the needle's eye while he waits outside in vain.
Thanks, Ant. I can't speak to their friendship, but that is what was being reported at the time. It's on the Wiki page, too.
Barr should have been disbarred long ago for his total lack of ethics in office. He convinced HW Bush to pardon all of his Iran/Contra co-conspirators. He shit canned the Mueller report. He set up the violent removal of peaceful protesters from the park so Trump could take the longest walk he has taken in the last 50 years. He lied to Kamala Harris in his confirmation hearings. The list is long and painful. And yet he, like so many of Trump's co-conspirators, walks free, and would be back, likely again as AG should Trump steal the 2024 election.
Absolutely 🐸.
Yes. I talk about some of that stuff in my 2019 piece. There was an excellent Village Voice piece that went into all of it. Eye opening. What is most infuriating about Barr is how the media normalizes him. He's, like, an example of a "reasonable" Republican. Please.
Doncha know, he's an older avuncular white guy who speaks in dulcet tones of authority and gravitas. Therefore, anything and everything he says is inherently good and true in the corporate media's eyes, amirite?
You are indeed, alas. He's like John Roberts in that way. Compared to the others, he appears perfectly normal...which makes him more dangerous.
Yeah, Roberts is the same kind of snake. He plays at being objective with his "Balls and Strikes" posturing but he's another smooth talking, hard-core reactionary.
People don't know that as a 20-plus year old RW legal warrior in Reagan's first term DOJ, he was gunning to overturn the Voting Rights Act of 1965 THEN. I bet he essentially had an, ahem, erotic reaction when he wrote the Shelby County v Holder decision.
He's as reactionary as the rest of the Seditious Six, but he wants to appear to be more balanced. He doesn't want to have his legacy tied with Roger Taney of the Dred Scott infamy as the worst Chief Justice in history.
Prosecute with extreme prejudice.
Chilling in its accuracy. Gut-squeezingly terrific writing. As another person quipped, this election needs a turnout that's 'too big to rig.'
Biden won in 2020 by seven million votes. Kamala will win by ten, at a minimum. I think this will be a trouncing.
Thank You, Nostradamus!!
It's interesting to note that a central premise of these reactionaries is that their arguments are premised on the claim that the behaviors that they so abominate increase if the consequences are not harsh. If you take the example of drug addiction, there are years of data that demonstrate that whether laws are harsh or lenient, whether drugs are more or less easily available, the rate of drug addiction remains the same. The same is true of the number of gay people, and, absent contraception, unintended pregnancies. What they are really at war with, is human beings and human nature.
Yes. They would prefer the return of the Inquisition, the burning of women at the stake, anything but joy and humanity.
Well put, Ellen, and true.
Excellent point, Frank, and well articulated. Barr wants more prison, longer sentences, bigger fines, more executions. He has zero tolerance for drug addicts. He thinks homosexuality is a sin. And he thinks more marriages will help the abortion rates, rather than, you know, sex education and easier access to contraception, because he also thinks those things are bad. Meanwhile his old man is writing novels about teenaged girls being raped.
No one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition.
Indeed, my thought exactly. We have seen this before in all its bloody and insane purification schemes and “Courts.”
And human biology.
Thanks for this Greg. Too few are aware of Barr's infamous history.
I wouldn't be surprised if sometime in the future the Vatican canonized as saints, Bill Barr, Leonard Leo, Amy Barrett, Kavanaugh, Thomas, Gorsuch, Alito, Scalia, and their ilk. There's a reason why only Catholics are so-called saints.
Thanks, Craig.
Nah, the real Catholics hate all of these extremist creeps.
True. But where are the real Catholics to speak up in the present?
I am a real Catholic. I speaking up about this creepy, secretive society Catholic groups.
I agree!
Thank you, Greg.
https://gyazo.com/51d41f4d12657ea60f89d38d778bee70
Ouch!
Well done again Greg......well researched; well articulated in your excellent, balanced presentation..... I guess that you've recovered your brilliant energy and enthusiasm.....thanks!
Dennis
Thanks, Dennis. My plan was to make it easy on myself and re-run my 2019 Barr piece with a few little edits, and I wound up writing a whole new piece...
We appreciate it!
Power. More power. Not just plain old power but unquestioned power which leads to more money which leads to more unquestionable power. God willing.Thus it has been thus it will ever be...fascist religious horseshit
Fascist religious horseshit indeed!
The only reason I want an alien 👽 to visit us publicity is to put an end to this eons long scamming
While looking up OPUS to put it on pre-order, for some insane algorithmic reason, I was also pointed to Kevin Roberts' book, coming out a month later, and a week after the election: https://a.co/d/3FcpNWA Just reading the synopsis gives me chills AND makes me laugh. It was obviously written before Kamala Harris became the nominee. My overall response to ir is, "Good luck with that."
This crap has been going on for years and it's especially embarrassing that it's now these radical Catholics that are the ones perpetrating it. I was raised a "regular" Catholic, so I have to wonder if in the same way I'm disgusted with these people, if Evangelicals, you know, the "regular" ones (is there such a thing?) are also disgusted by those we see on the regular.
I have a feeling, call it Karmala, that they're, once again, going to be mighty disappointed that they'll have to put their idea of making the United States into some sort of Catholic Iran on hold. They'll keep trying, and they'll keep losing. No one wants this shit except them. They're never going to realize that, are they? Nine hundred pages of Project 2025 tells me no.
Steve. Amazon did a fine job highlighting JD Vance as the guy who wrote the Foreword for Roberts' book!
Because of course he did. At the end of the day, there aren't THAT many of these weirdos, which is why they keep getting recycled.
Wish Amazon had done a fine job highlighting that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's book, "True Gretch" is NOT the same as the evil "parody" written by a Michigan Rep. Freedom Caucus F#$k with the title "True Gretchen." There has got to be a law against this kind of libel, and I hope she can win $millions in a copyrite suit.
Or, at least get me my $15 back.
It might be too late now, but I would have DEMANDED my money back from Amazon for BS like that. It's usually a 30-day return window, but they may make an exception to at least get a gift card credit in your Amazon account.
There was an author named, "Stephen King" floating around Amazon a few years ago, and his book covers were designed almost exactly like the real King's books, so a lot of people were fooled. He eventually had to add his middle initial to his name to differentiate his crap books from the real Stephen King. I almost got fooled a few times, but I keep up with what and when Stephen King is going to publish, so I wasn't, but it was a close call!
Sorry to hear about that, MP.
"Karmala" ha!
I'm sure Kevin's book will sell well, because all the rightwing weirdo think tanks will buy a lot of copies. The only thing I can say about him is that at least he's not a bad writer. But who will read the thing? I bet more people hate-read it than read it and agree!
My mom is always pissed at these weirdos for making normal, non-weirdo Catholics looks like freaks. And so am I!
Thanks for this, Greg.
The "problem" IS the Catholic church. If they behaved as Jesus taught, loving everyone, helping all the sick, and all the needy, and fed all the children, and turned all their other cheeks, then, by their shining virtuous example, humanity would be drawn to them, just as Jesus intended. But, instead, they have imposed their will and ideas on everyone (the global reach of the Catholic church through its vassal states and their conquer-tactics on native populations the world over for the past two thousand years, for example). Their will and ideas are the opposite of the Bible's actual teachings. The horrors their will and ideas have caused is incalculable. If they were true Christians, the rest of us would flock to them, but instead, by their own corrupted will and ideas, they have turned us all away from the Church. Bill Barr and his ilk need to reread their Bibles and their dictionaries.
AMEN DESHA! Something happened to the Catholic Church in the early 1970s. In 1970, my priest at my neighborhood parish (assigned to the high school group) gave me the $500 in cash that I needed to get an abortion at the community hospital. I was able to live my life, develop a meaningful career, and have two wonderful children who are now adults, all thanks to that priest supporting my choice. I now live around the corner from a Catholic church that has a sign in front of it saying "Protect life from conception to natural death." So no "death with dignity" to end horrible suffering? I won't even look at their thrift store! I can't imagine how the Church is going to survive if it continues to require adherents to comply with these ridiculous pronouncements from men. Out of 10 people in two generations of our family, only one is still Catholic. Really poor retention rate.
I'm glad to hear, Abby, that you had a good priest who helped you. That is, after all, their job: to help those less fortunate, and in need.
The anti-euthanasia thing -- which Barr talks about in that speech -- is insane to me. Like, what person, suffering miserably and with no chance of survival, would not prefer to die with dignity? I think that, in such a position, 99.9999 percent of humans would make that choice -- including these Bill Barr assholes.
You were so fortunate to have had a great history with your church. I'm Lutheran, and had some mixed results, but I believe, and today, clergy seem to be doing more harm than good. So, keep the faith. Keep your faith!
Thanks, Desha. There is no way to rationalize or explain away all of the horrible things the RCC has done these last 2000 years, from Beziers to the sack of Constantinople to the Inquisition to the implementation of slavery in the New World to the pedophilia. But I will say, as someone who grew up Catholic and went to church A LOT in my youth, the Leonard Leo set is NOT representative of most mainstream Catholics. They are doing the opposite of what I learned Jesus wanted us to do.
Also, the Church is very much priest-dependent. Meaning, if you have a great priest -- and there are plenty of great priests -- you have a good church experience, and if you don't, it can be hell on earth.
I won't return until they have women priests and gay marriage.
Wasn't it Groucho Marx who said he wouldn't join any club that would have him as a member?? (Forgive my paraphrasing.) It's the reverse with churches. Why would I join a church that doesn't value me? Why would anyone?
Yes, and the whole world is counting on this being true. I think once respect and integrity are restored (after Harris is elected) regular people will come back out into the sunshine, and religions will remember what they're all about and help us all go out our doors today and be better people than we were yesterday.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
What is wrong with these people and their ability to comprehend plain speak?
Barr in his speech says that the Founders were all Christians who wanted the country to be Christian -- despite the evidence to the contrary you just cited. SMH.
While Barr may have burnt bridges when he resigned over election fraud, dipshit 45 will not be calling the shots should be be reelected, by vote or subversion. May God forbid this from happening, be it the Opus Dei version or a more normal Supreme Being. Others will decide who is AG.
Hmnn, William Pelham Barr. Pelham as in the 1974 movie, "The Taking of Pelham 123", a train wreck in the making. Is there a Walter Mathau to stop the crash? Not one but many, they are called voters. BTW, this version is a better watch than the 2009 Denzel Washington version.
I think you're right and they will find someone even nuttier.
"William Pelham" is quite the tongue-twister...
I've never seen that movie but I should.
Has a great cast
It seems more and more clear that it keeps coming back to authoritarian vs. a more democratic form of governance.
I don't think religion has to be authoritarian, but the god of Abraham was an authoritarian prick. Maybe that worked well thousands of years ago, but it doesn't work now. People who still want a strongman leader are always in the minority. It also seems like Jesus was more of a democratic, distributed power kind of guy.
If we examine all of the conflict and suffering in the world right now, it's all being caused by authoritarian assholes. We have to wake up and stop giving these people power.
It really is that simple, I agree. Our society right now promotes sociopathy, in business and in politics. I think it goes hand in hand with whatever this stage of capitalism is. Jesus was NOT a capitalist, that much we know for sure.
Yes, and his dad hired Epstein to teach at that private girls school in New York and wrote a twisted, trashy sci-fi yarn that makes me wonder what went down in his early home life. Someday I hope we find out everything there is to know about all of Epstein‘s associates…
The Epstein-Barr connection is very very strange. But I don't think we'll ever know the truth of it. Barr seems like a buy who can keep his mouth shut -- unlike another Opus Dei guy, Robert Hanssen.
Epstein-Barr virus is a type of herpesvirus that cause mononucleosis and is suspected to cause many autoimmune disorders. Very destructive once it’s inside the human body. Coincidence?
It’s TUESDAY🎉Welcome back!
Thanks!
The very first place I drove after getting my driver's license was to a rally for JFK when he was running for president. At that time the country was awash with allegations that electing a Catholic would put the Pope in command. My family was half-Catholic, and I thought this really silly.
Now "retrograde" Catholicism is outPoping the Pope. Somehow American culture is advocating killing of women and children? If it were, I'd oppose it, (well, there is unconflicted support of Israel in Gaza...) but somehow that is the same as gay marriage?
I am so SICK of Christianists claiming that they are victims, with the Facebook or music streaming or Toni Morrison sending lions against them, I guess. They want Judeo-Christian morals über alles, with emphasis on Leviticus and nothing about loving thy neighbor or that camel/needle thing or concern for the poor. When Jesus handed out loaves and fishes, was he coddling "personal misconduct and irresponsibility" that Barr so much hates?
When Leo hits the pearly gates, I hope he watches a stream of camels slipping through the needle's eye while he waits outside in vain.
1/ Leo has ridden a camel before. You can find the picture online, I think. Fat chance that thing makes it through any needle eyes.
2/ Barr is fine with Jesus handing out loaves and fishes, but not the Roman government doing so. Which makes no sense, really.
3/ Leo et al are exactly the kind of extremist weirdo Catholic people were afraid JFK would be.