Civil Commotion

Many who watched Attorney General William Barr’s testimony on Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which followed the revelation that the special counsel Robert Mueller had expressed misgivings about Mr. Barr’s characterization of his report, are despairing about the rule of law. I am not among them. I think the system is working, and inching, however slowly, toward justice.

When it comes to investigating a president, the special counsel regulations I had the privilege of drafting in 1998-99 say that such inquiries have one ultimate destination: Congress.

Neal Katyal, New York Times

I wish I could feel so sanguine as Mr. Katyal, but I can’t. In fact, thinking of the frank lawlessness of the Trump administration, I’ve been sitting here wondering if American self-governance has reached a tipping-point. Consider:

• Trump has explicitly ordered his staff to refuse to honor Congressional subpoenas.

• Attorney General Barr unambiguously lied to Congress, repeatedly, and answers to complaint about it with smirks.

• Joseph Goebbels-like, Trump simply makes-up ‘facts’ to suit his needs, and sycophantic 1984-ish media such as FOX News dutifully repeat the lies to millions of Trump cultists.

Bottom line: The country is in the hands of lawless sociopaths who recognize no authority but their own day-to-day needs.

No matter, says Nancy Pelosi. Better, she says, to beat Trump at the ballot-box in 2020 than try to impeach him.

Her reasoning is not difficult to follow, but it rests upon an assumption that can’t be trusted. Why — exactly, please — does she believe that Trump will vacate the office when he is defeated in 2020? (Or, for that matter, upon conviction by the Senate?) I don’t believe for an instant that such an assumption can be relied upon. Contrarily, I don’t have the slightest difficulty imagining that this twisted freak who lied about the crowd-size at his inauguration will summon his legions of overwrought morons to D.C. to protect his occupancy of the White House.

We thank you for this wonderful White House, for our president, first lady, first family and administration. We declare it to be holy ground. I will bless the Lord at all times, and his praise shall continually be in my mouth. So as we thank you for the goodness, for the prosperity of our nation, for your blessing, for your hand.

We understand Ephesians 6:12, that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood but against principalities, wickedness and darkness, so we declare every demonic network to be scattered right now.

We declare right now that there is a hedge of protection over our president, first lady, every assignment, the purpose they carry and the mantle.

Paula White, Televangelist

It isn’t what you heard in church and Sunday School when you were growing up, but understand this: The cult that surrounded and celebrated Jesus was the exact same pack of deranged and corrupt loonies and grifters now swarming around Trump. We are reliving the 1^st-century Jesus movement.

The Liar-in-Chief is channeling Joseph Goebbels again.

No. The Trump cult isn’t going to read the Mueller report because they know it doesn’t uphold their fantasies, but the rest of us need desperately to read it carefully. The Trump campaign, including Trump, knew that the Russians were meddling in the election, knew the Russians were forwarding stolen files to Wikileaks, expected to benefit from the thefts and publication, did not notify the FBI, and sought to frustrate the investigation. It’s all there, and in plain language.

When Trump writes “The Mueller Report strongly stated that there was No Collusion with Russia (of course) and, in fact, they were rebuffed at every turn in attempts to gain access” he is inventing history, concocting facts out of thin air. The report does not say those things; it says the opposite.

Seriously: Your country needs for you to get to a bookstore and get a copy of the report and read it.

But his outrageous conduct convinces you that you simply must stay, to preserve and protect the people and institutions and values you hold dear. Along with Republican members of Congress, you tell yourself you are too important for this nation to lose, especially now.

You can’t say this out loud — maybe not even to your family — but in a time of emergency, with the nation led by a deeply unethical person, this will be your contribution, your personal sacrifice for America. You are smarter than Donald Trump, and you are playing a long game for your country, so you can pull it off where lesser leaders have failed and gotten fired by tweet.

Of course, to stay, you must be seen as on his team, so you make further compromises. You use his language, praise his leadership, tout his commitment to values.

And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul.

James Comey

Trump soils everything, and everybody, he touches. Seriously: Except for Comey himself, and perhaps James Mattis, who has left his administration with dignity, integrity, and reputation intact?

Nobody — that’s who. There is a reason, and that reason is the putrescent character of Donald Trump.

Except for FOX News, the major television news outlets were all dominated last evening by the Washington Post’s report that Special Counsel Robert Mueller sharply criticized Attorney General Barr’s 4-page summary of the report.

This is news to only those who haven’t read the report. For those of us who have, it’s been obvious from the get-go that (a) Barr egregiously misrepresented Mueller’s conclusions and (b) after 2-years of work and abuse from the First Felon, Mueller was probably pretty unhappy about that. The only interesting question is, Why did Barr do it? Surely he knew that his misrepresentations would be uncovered and become the subject of public discussion. I am able to think of only two possible explanations, both of them unflattering to Barr.

1. Barr intended to withhold publication of the report, so that his summary would be the final word, or …

2. Barr has been compromised and is willing to publicly humiliate himself and end his career in disgrace in order to avoid something worse.

Clearly, Barr must go. If he will not do the honorable thing and resign, he should be impeached.