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Best of the Web: The bewildering bombardment of Bill Barr

Roger Kimball
The Spectator
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 21:06 UTC
ie
Bill barr judiciary committee hearing July 2020
© GettyAttorney General William Barr testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing in the Congressional Auditorium at the US Capitol
His would-be inquisitors in the Democratic party have succumbed to a virus far more toxic than the Wuhan flu

Attorney General William Barr's seemingly interminable testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday demonstrated two things. First, AG Barr is the most patient and unflappable man in Alpha Centauri. Second, his would-be inquisitors in the Democratic party have succumbed to a virus far more toxic than the Wuhan flu.

Political epidemiologists who identify the virus as Trump Derangement Syndrome are not quite right in their diagnosis. To be sure, TDS is a common comorbidity that renders this new infection more virulent and debilitating. But the nervous disorder on view yesterday, while it presupposes tertiary Trump Derangement Syndrome, is actually distinct from that malady. I am not sure that public health officials have yet settled on a name for the sickness. Yet like the end stages of rabies, everyone can recognize its appalling symptoms.

Comment: A montage of the Democrats disgraceful treatment of the Attorney General of the United States at a hearing THEY had been clamoring for for months.





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Caesar

Best of the Web: Trump announces plan to pull 12,000 troops out of Germany - 6,400 of whom will return to US

Julian Borger
Yahoo.com
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 21:08 UTC
trump us troops
The US is planning to pull nearly 12,000 troops out of Germany in a move the Pentagon insisted was about long-term strategy but which Donald Trump said was to punish Berlin for low defence spending.

Of a total of 11,900 personnel that will be leaving Germany under the proposal, 6,400 will be returning to the US, from where they could be used for rotational deployments in eastern Europe and around the world, while 5,600 will be repositioned within other Nato countries, particularly Belgium and Italy.

The defence secretary, Mark Esper, said the move would begin within weeks, but also stressed that planning for the redeployment was in its early stages and it would cost several billion dollars.

He repeatedly denied that the decision was motivated by Trump's frequently expressed desire to move troops out of Germany to teach Berlin a lesson for not spending enough on defence. The Pentagon put out a statement saying the withdrawal would "strengthen Nato, enhance the deterrence of Russia" and boost the flexibility of the US military.

Comment: Will wonders never cease. A retired military man at a think-tank not distorting a common sense position the president takes!

Again we note that Trump is proactively pushing to make good on his electoral promise to scale down US overseas deployments. And again it's *crickets* from the 'traditional anti-war left'...

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Che Guevara

Best of the Web: Democrats make mockery of Barr 'hearing'

Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review
Tue, 28 Jul 2020 20:39 UTC
william barr attorney general
US AG William Barr, worthy of the honorific.
If it's a "hearing," Bill Barr asked with an irked tongue in cheek, "aren't I the one who's supposed to be heard?"

His frustration was more than justified. Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) and the other Democrats who control the House demanded for months that Barr come to a "hearing" and "testify." But of course, it wasn't anything like an actual hearing, and they didn't want him to testify — as in actually answer questions. The session was a coveted election-year opportunity for Democrats to berate the attorney general of the United States in five-minute installments, accusing Barr of corruption, perjury, violating his oath, betraying the Constitution — at one point, even of killing thousands of COVID-19 victims (apparently, by being attorney general during a pandemic).

Especially at the beginning of the hearing, Barr easily parried the hostile questions — soliloquies with question-marks at the end. He picked apart their misstatements and disingenuous premises, and answered with aplomb. Democrats thus dropped the threadbare pretense that this was a hearing. In the main, the rest of the afternoon was devoted to raging, mock-anguished perorations about how Trump is a dictator and how Barr is helping him destroy our democracy.

These were punctuated by the occasional petulant demand that Barr answer "yes or no" a question that was either loaded or incoherent. When Barr would begin to answer, there would be foot-stomping, indignant, "I'm reclaiming my time" interruptions, claims that there was no question pending (usually after a question had just been posed), and then more Democrat filibustering about how the American people could clearly see that Barr was afraid to answer their questions . . . that they wouldn't let him answer.

It was an embarrassing spectacle.

Comment: Here's just one 'questioning' of the United States Attorney General that took place yesterday. This basically went on for 4 hours! Barr was stoic and funny in handling the Democrazis on this occasion, but the author is correct that the hyper-partisan nature of US politics spells doom for the US...


Actually, hang on... here's another sample of yesterday's 'hearing':




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Footprints

Federal agents, officers head to Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee as Operation Legend expands

Kristine Phillips
USA Today
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 11:25 UTC
protesters lay in street
© Charlie Riedel/APProtesters demanding police reforms and end to Operation Legend lie in the street to block a downtown Kansas City intersection July 17, 2020.
The Justice Department plans to send nearly 100 federal agents and officers to Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee, in an expansion of Operation Legend, a federal crime initiative that began earlier this month.

The department will send 42 agents to Detroit and more than 25 each to Cleveland and Milwaukee - cities that officials said have seen rising violent crime rates. The federal officers, drawn from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies, will help local and state officials in criminal investigations, the Justice Department said Thursday.

The announcement comes as state and local officials, drawing from the unrest in Portland, Oregon, are increasingly skeptical and apprehensive of a surge of federal law enforcement resources to their cities. Several big-city mayors have decried the aggressive use of federal forces in Portland and have expressed reservations about the deployments of agents to their cities.

Attorney General William Barr has defended the expansion of Operation Legend, saying it's targeting cities with violent crime problems, and the deployments are different from the surge of officers in Portland, where federal agents have clashed with protesters. Barr said in a statement:
"The most basic responsibility of government is to protect the safety of our citizens. The Department of Justice's assets will supplement local law enforcement efforts, as we work together to take the shooters and chronic violent criminals off of our streets."

Comment: Mayors may squawk but funding makes everything more palatable. Not an election stunt, Barr and Trump are doing what is necessary, having given certain cities the space to self-handle their situations. The city-by-city 'crimedemic' has one (calculated?) outcome: Folks are more willing to remain in isolation the longer riots continue in the streets.

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Jet5

GOP 'Covid-19 relief' bill sets aside $7B for weapons, including F-35 fighter jets; Sanders calls it 'DOA'


RT
Tue, 28 Jul 2020 17:29 UTC
F-35 jet
© Vermont Air National Guard Base, US Air National Guard/Miss Julie M. Shea/Reuters$7B gets a 'Thumbs Up'
The coronavirus relief proposal released by Republican lawmakers seeks to inject $7 billion into tools presumably essential for fighting the virus... such as the Pentagon's favorite money sink, the F-35 stealth fighter program.

Democrats have been adamantly opposed to the GOP coronavirus relief package right from the onset, and to the surprise of no one, given the current ultra-partisan climate. But the bill, which was made public on Monday, really brings out the Republican party's generosity towards defense contractors. Of the $1 trillion financial injection, $29 billion is supposed to go to defense spending, according to a Defense News count.

Some $7 billion is to be spent on weapons programs under the draft law, paying for new or upgraded warships, warplanes, missiles and military satellites. The Navy would get to spend $1 billion on Boeing P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance planes, while the Air Force would enjoy an extra $686 million for additional Lockheed F-35A fighter jets.

Comment: Military has its own kind of viral package for which the American public has been in financial lockdown for decades.

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Blue Pill

'Why don't we focus on now?' Obama advisor 'recreates' Hillary's infamous Benghazi moment


RT
Tue, 28 Jul 2020 21:41 UTC
Valerie Jarrett
© Reuters/Larry DowningValerie Jarrett before US President Barack Obama steps off Air Force One at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Former Barack Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett was grilled on the Steele dossier and the FBI spying on the Trump campaign live on TV, but tried to dodge the topic altogether, earning comparisons to Hillary Clinton from conservatives.

Confronted by a Fox Business anchor with mounting evidence that much of the dossier - which alleged illegal cooperation between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government - was unverified and not credible, Jarrett said Tuesday morning that it's time to move on from the issue because it was "nearly four years ago. I don't understand why our focus isn't on what's happening right now," she told the host Maria Bartiromo.

But Bartiromo continued trying to get clear answers on the dossier, which kicked off the 'Russiagate' investigation and was used to spy on Trump campaign member Carter Page. She asked the Obama advisor to respond to reports the document was not based on firsthand knowledge and could have been politically motivated to target officials like Michael Flynn.

Jarrett parroted her first deflection and tried to steer the conversation to the "integrity" of the upcoming November election. "Aren't you worried about how we are going to have a safe and fair election?" she asked Bartiromo. Later confronted with the question of whether she or Obama had any direct involvement in the dossier and the campaign spying that followed, Jarrett claimed "that's not how it works" and theorized the dossier was only "one piece" of the many reasons former FBI Director James Comey decided to investigate Trump and his campaign.

See the full exchange below:

Comment: Jarrett's Message: We mustn't poke at 'inconvenient truths' if it exposes 'convenient lies'. And, by the way, let's forget there are long-lasting and radiating ramifications to our actions.

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NPC

Mush for brains: Dem rep equates Portland riot with anti-lockdown protest, attacks Barr for not sending feds to 'deal' with 'right-wing extremists'


RT
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 18:55 UTC
Pramila Jayapal
© Pool via REUTERS / Matt McClainPramila Jayapal questions Attorney General William Barr during the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) has compared armed anti-lockdown protesters in Michigan, an open-carry state, to vandals and rioters in Portland, as she unleashed a tirade on AG Bill Barr for treating the groups differently.

Barr was accused of plenty by Democrats during Tuesday's hearing, from politicizing the Justice Department to being "unAmerican" for deploying federal officers to violent protests in Portland, Oregon. However, Jayapal went a step further and questioned the way the attorney general responds to protests involving black citizens and those involving white ones, while comparing and contrasting anti-lockdown protests in Michigan in April and May and the current Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Portland, Oregon.


"But in Michigan when protesters carried guns and Confederate flags and swastikas and called for the governor of Michigan to be beheaded and shot and lynched, somehow you are not aware of that," she told Barr.


Comment: Jayapal exaggerates. See below.


"There is a real discrepancy in how you react as attorney general when white men with swastikas storm a government building with guns. There is no need for the president to, quote, 'activate you,' because they're getting the president's personal agenda done," she continued.

While some of the anti-lockdown protesters against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) were armed and were indeed allowed into the state capitol, there were no reports of vandalism or violence against either lawmakers or officers who were protecting the building. Michigan is an open-carry state, and it is not illegal to bear firearms inside the statehouse.
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Attention

USA - A nation under house arrest

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 19:13 UTC
"It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freeman of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle." — James Madison
House Arrest
© Premium Times Opinion
We have become one nation under house arrest.

You think we're any different from the Kentucky couple fitted out with ankle monitoring bracelets and forced to quarantine at home?

We're not

Consider what happened to Elizabeth and Isaiah Linscott.

Elizabeth took a precautionary diagnostic COVID-19 test before traveling to visit her parents and grandparents in Michigan. It came back positive: Elizabeth was asymptomatic for the novel coronavirus but had no symptoms. Her husband and infant daughter tested negative for the virus.

Now in a country where freedom actually means something, the Linscotts would have the right to determine for themselves how to proceed responsibly, but in the American Police State, we've only got as much freedom as the government allows.

That's not saying much.

Indeed, it's a dangerous time for anyone who still clings to the idea that freedom means the right to think for yourself and act responsibly according to your best judgment.

In that regard, the Linscotts are a little old-school in their thinking. When Elizabeth was asked to sign a self-quarantine order agreeing to check in daily with the health department and not to travel anywhere without prior approval, she refused.

"I shouldn't have to ask for consent because I'm an adult who can make that decision. And as a citizen of the United States of America, that is my right to make that decision without having to disclose that to somebody else," said Elizabeth. "So, no, I wouldn't wear a mask. I would do everything that I could to make sure that I wouldn't come in contact with other people because of the fear that's spreading with this. But no, I would have just stayed home, take care of my child."
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Gold Seal

Best of the Web: Impressions from an informal meeting with Asma al-Assad, Syria's first lady

Eva Bartlett
ingaza.wordpress.com
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 18:28 UTC
asma assad
© facebook.com/AsmaalAssad.FirstLady/
I had been sitting in a small entrance room for what seemed less than a minute when the door opened and Syria's first lady, Her Excellency Asma al-Assad, greeted me with a warm smile, welcoming me inside a slightly larger sitting room. In official meetings I had had over the years in Syria, I was accustomed to a secretary or assistant escorting me into the meeting room. Asma al-Assad, however, does things up close and personal.

Over the years in Syria, I had heard from people I encountered that she and President Assad routinely meet with their fellow Syrians in crowded venues, mixing and engaging with the people. I had also seen countless photos and videos of the Assads visiting Syrians in their homes around the country.

While I have been to Syria over a dozen times in the past seven years, it had never occurred to me to request a meeting with the first lady. But when that opportunity recently presented itself, I leapt at the chance to speak with one of the most beloved figures in Syria, and to hear her thoughts on her country, her fellow Syrians, and on the plights they are all in. And as it turned out, it was a chance to hear her poignant insights on her role as a mother, a citizen, the wife of the President and a leader in her own right.

Even before assuming the role of Syria's first lady, Asma al-Assad made it a priority to focus on the development of Syria, and over the years since she's headed organizations focusing on a range of development issues, including financial, educational and vocational. To effectively work on the many issues she does, her level of awareness of Syrians' situation on the ground is crucial.
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Bulb

Taliban, Afghan government declare three-day cease-fire during Eid holiday


RFE/RL
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 16:54 UTC
Taliban
The Taliban has instructed its fighters "not to carry out any operation against the enemy during the three days and nights of Eid."
The Taliban and Afghan government have announced a three-day cease-fire for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday starting on July 31, as the United States presses for the start of delayed intra-Afghan peace talks.

"All mujahideen (Taliban fighters) are instructed not to carry out any operation against the enemy during the three days and nights of Eid," the Taliban said in a July 28 statement, adding that if the Taliban were attacked, they should "respond strongly."

The Afghan government said it had ordered its security forces to observe the cease-fire.

Ross Wilson, charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, welcomed the announcements, saying Afghans "deserve to celebrate the holiday in peace."
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