#former AG William Barr

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The High & Mighty Sure Are Falling ... Thump ... Thud

As I have mentioned before, Adam Kinzinger, former U.S. Representative whose political career came to an abrupt halt when he first voted to impeach Donald Trump, and then voluntarily served on the January 6th committee, now writes a column/post on Substack.  His words are generally wise, thoughtful, and he pulls no punches.  In his column today, he throws in a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour as he…

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

By 

Joe Marino , Chris Harris , Isabel Vincent, Chris Nesi and Emily Crane

It takes privilege to protest at Columbia.

The 114 anti-Israel protesters who were busted at Columbia on Thursday include members of the upper crust: an intern for New York State Attorney General Letitia James — and the daughter of a prominent UPS executive who killed an elderly couple with her truck as a teenager and got off with a slap on the wrist.

A Post deep-dive into the backgrounds of the protesters shows many list multimillion-dollar mansions as their home addresses, according to sources, and come from wealthy and powerful families.

5The 114 anti-Israel protesters who were busted at Columbia on Thursday include an intern for New York state AG Letitia James — and the daughter of a prominent UPS executive who killed an elderly couple with her truck as a teenager.

In 2020, at the age of 16, Isabel veered her Toyota Tacoma pickup truck across a double yellow line on US Route 7 in Charlotte, Vermont, killing Chet and Connie Hawkins, a married couple in their 70s, according to a report by the Barre Montpelier Times Argus.

She pleaded no contest to a civil traffic ticket for “driving on roadways laned for traffic” and was issued a $220 fine — which her mother paid, according to the Rutland Herald.

Many are students at Barnard College, Columbia University’s liberal arts sister school.

Others are career activists with multiple arrests under their belts.

Minnesota congresswoman and “Squad” member Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, a Barnard student with a long history of civil disobedience, was among those cited for trespassing and taken into custody.

She was released a few hours later and declined to speak to The Post.

Also cuffed and removed from the Columbia campus was Isabel Jennifer Seward, daughter of high-ranking UPS executive William J. Seward.

5Then there’s Avery Reed, a former summer intern for Letitia James who also worked part-time on “gender equality” for the Biden-Harris campaign in 2021 in Florida.Linkedin

[uboat53]

Cabinet Endorsements

One thing that's flown a bit below the radar in this election is that former cabinet members haven't been acting like they usually do. Normally, former cabinet members will automatically endorse their former boss for re-election, but Trump's have not been doing that.

This is of particular interest because, while we, the voters, get to see the President give speeches and the like, we don't actually work with him. Presumably a cabinet member is someone who agrees with the president and who the president trusts and who gets to work closely with the president, so their opinion of the president is an important benchmark.

With that in mind, let's take a look at the 44 former cabinet members of the Donald J. Trump administration and the 2 former cabinet members of the Joseph R. Biden administration. I'll put an (E) next to the ones that have endorsed their former boss, an (H) next to the ones who haven't yet, and an (R) next to the ones who have outright refused to do so.

Cabinet Members of the Donald J. Trump Administration (R) VP Mike Pence (H) Sec. State Rex Tillerson (H) Sec. State/CIA Director Mike Pompeo (E) Sec. Treasury Steven Mnuchin (R) Sec. Defense James Mattis (H) Sec. Defense Patrick Shanahan (nominated) (R) Sec. Defense Mark Esper (H) Sec. Defense Christopher Miller (acting) (H) AG Jeff Sessions (R) AG William Barr (H) AG Jeffrey Rosen (acting) (E) Sec. Interior Ryan Zinke (H) Sec. Interior David Bernhardt (H) Sec. Agriculture Sonny Perdue (E) Sec. Commerce Wilbur Ross (H) Sec. Labor Andrew Puzder (nominated) (H) Sec. Labor Alex Acosta (H) Sec. Labor Eugene Scalia (H) Sec. HHS Tom Price (H) Sec. HHS Alex Azar (H) Sec. HHS Pete Gaynor (E) Sec. HUD Ben Carson (H) Sec. Transporation Elaine Chao (H) Sec. Transportation Steven Bradbury (acting) (H) Sec. Energy Rick Perry (H) Sec. Energy Dan Brouillette (H) Sec. Education Besty DeVos (H) Sec. Education Mick Zais (acting) (H) Sec. VA David Shulkin (E) Sec. VA Ronny Jackson (nominated) (H) Sec. VA Robert Wilkie (R) Sec. HS John Kelly (H) Sec. HS Kirstjen Nielsen (H) Sec. HS Chad Wolf (nominated) (E) US Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer (H) DNI Dan Coats (H) DNI John Ratcliffe (H) UN Ambassador Nikki Haley (H) OMB Directory Mick Mulvaney (E) OMB Director Russel Vought (H) CIA Director Gina Haspel (H) EPA Admin. Scott Pruitt (H) EPA Admin. Andrew Wheeler (H) SBA Admin. Linda McMahon (H) SBA Admin. Jovita Caranza

Cabinet Members of the Joseph R. Biden Administration (E) Sec. Labor Marty Walsh (E) OMB Director Neera Tanden (nominated) (H) Office of Science and Tech. Director Eric Lander

The first thing we notice, obviously, is that there are a whole lot more former Trump cabinet members. This is partially because Biden is still in office so his 23 current cabinet members are not counted (it'd be a huge surprise if they didn't endorse him and they probably wouldn't still be working for him if they didn't), but it's also because Trump had way above average turnover for cabinet officials, 19 in the first four years not including the 5 who resigned due to his handling of the 2020 election results (not included because Biden hasn't reached that point in his first term yet), while Biden has had far below average turnover, only 3 so far.

So a lot more people shuffling in and out of the Trump administration, but we also notice a ton more H's than E's there. Heck, there's almost as many R's among Trump's people as there are E's (5 to 7). Meanwhile, Biden's shooting 2 for 3 and the third one hasn't (at least not that I could find) ruled out endorsing him.

Keep in mind, endorsing the nominee of your party is pretty much the bare minimum that any party operative needs to do. Imagine if you applied for a job somewhere, the first question was "do you think this company should be in business", and you answered "no". You probably wouldn't be getting a job there. In other words, refusing to endorse has some big consequences for the people doing it, not just costing them a job in the potential next Republican presidency, but locking them out of the party entirely, and yet a good deal of the people who worked for Trump disliked working with him so much that they're doing it anyways.

As I said, this tends to fly below the radar because it's kind of a formulaic ritual; of course members of the President's party who are closely tied to him are going to endorse him for re-election! That's why you should pay attention now that most of the people who've worked with Trump aren't doing so. It says something, something big.

[fiercestpurpose]

The United States government is taking on one of the world's most powerful companies: Google.

A court battle kicks off on Tuesday in which the U.S. Justice Department will argue that Google abused its power as a monopoly to dominate the search engine business. It's the government's first major monopoly case to make it to trial in decades and the first in the age of the modern internet.

The Justice Department's case hinges on claims that Google illegally orchestrated its business dealings, so that it's the first search engine people see when they turn on their phones and web browsers. The government says Google's goal was to stomp out competition.

"This lawsuit strikes at the heart of Google's grip over the internet for millions of American consumers, advertisers, small businesses and entrepreneurs beholden to an unlawful monopolist," said former Attorney General William Barr when the case was first filed in October 2020.

Now nearly three years later, with millions of pages of documents produced and depositions from more than 150 people, the case is going to trial.

[transgenderer]

Gonâve Island or Zile Lagonav is an island of Haiti located west-northwest of Port-au-Prince in the Gulf of Gonâve

On July 18, 1926, U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Faustin E. Wirkus (1896–1945) was proclaimed by the residents of the island as King Faustin II, where he ruled over the island with the tribal queen Ti Mememnne as co-monarchs. His reign lasted until 1929, when he peacefully abdicated and returned home to the United States.[6] Ti Memenne would continue to unofficially rule the island until her death in that same year. For context, Haiti is a republic and abolished the monarchy in 1859 with Fabre Nicolas Geffrard.

According to an official biography,[5] Wirkus was born in 1896 in Rypin (Congress Poland, in the Russian Empire) a small town now in Poland, however, numerous ship passenger lists (records of the U.S. Customs Service) show his correct birth place as Pittston, Pennsylvania.[6] He and his parents settled in Dupont, Pennsylvania, a coal mining community northwest of Wilkes-Barre, where he was raised.[5] At the age of 11, he started sorting coal in Pittston.

Wirkus enlisted in the US Marine Corps in 1915 and served in the 1st Advance Base Brigade in Haiti and rose to the rank of corporal in 1918 then to gunnery sergeant in 1920.[7] During his service in the Marine Corps, he was promoted to a lieutenant in the Garde d'Haiti, commanding a squad of native troops on La Gonâve. After rescuing a young woman in trouble, he found out that she was Queen Timemenne of La Gonâve. He was welcomed by the population as Timemenne had told them how kind he was to her, and in part, due to the unusual circumstance that he had the same first name as the former emperor of Haiti, Faustin Soulouque, later known as Faustin I ("Faustin the First"), who died in 1867. Somewhat bizarrely, the natives proclaimed him Faustin II in a Voodoo ritual[8] and he ruled jointly with Queen Timemenne for three years.[5][8][9] He became known for dispensing ready but gentle justice.[10]

Queen Ti Memenne of La Gonâve (also written as Timemenne; 19th-century – fl. 1929) was the tribal ruler of La Gonâve, a Haitian island located west of Hispaniola in the Gulf of Gonâve, in the 1920s. While her reign was not officially recognized by the republican government of Haiti during American occupation, she maintained political, economic, spiritual, and social leadership of the island. Arrested by the Garde d'Haiti for being a practitioner of Vodou, she was shown compassion by Faustin E. Wirkus, an American military officer who assisted in her release. She later proclaimed Wirkus to be the reincarnation of former Haitian Emperor Faustin Soulouque and crowned him as a co-ruler over La Gonâve.

???

i THINK the only direct sources for this are this guy's memoir and the magic island by william seabrook which seems pretty sensationalist. so i think this might not have happened. the us military believes it though

[lboogie1906]

Quock Walker (1753 -?) an enslaved, sued for and won his freedom in June 1781 based on a new Massachusetts Constitution (1780) which declared all men to be born free and equal. He was born in central Massachusetts near the town of Barre to enslaved Mingo and Dinah who were Ghanaian-born. He is believed to be named Kwaku in Akan meaning “for boy born on Wednesday”.

In 1754 his entire family was bought by James Caldwell of Worcester County. He was promised his freedom by Caldwell once he reached the age of twenty-five. His widow renewed the promise although changing the age of manumission to twenty-one. The widowed Mrs. Caldwell married Nathaniel Jennison in 1763 and died about 1772. When he turned twenty-one, Jennison refused to let him go. In 1781 Walker, ran away from Jennison and went to work at a nearby farm that belonged to Seth and John Caldwell, who were brothers of Walker’s former owner, James Caldwell. Jennison retrieved him and beat him severely as punishment for running away. He sued Jennison for battery, and Jennison sued the Caldwells for enticing him away from him.

The two civil cases: Jennison v. Caldwell and Quock Walker v. Jennison were heard by the Worcester County Court of Common Pleas on June 12, 1781. In the Jennison v. Caldwell case, the court found in Jennison’s favor, awarding him 25 pounds. In the Quock Walker v. Jennison case, the jury decided that he was a free man under the constitution and awarded him 50 pounds in damages.

In September 1781, a third case was filed by the Massachusetts Attorney General against Jennison called Commonwealth v. Jennison for the criminal assault and battery of Walker. The trial came before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in April 1783. Jennison argued that he was a runaway enslaved, but his attorneys argued that the Massachusetts Constitution made slavery illegal in 1780. Chief Justice William Cushing accepted his argument and instructed the jury that whether he had been freed or not was irrelevant because slavery was no longer constitutional. The jury convicted Jennison who was fined 40 shillings. The date of his death is unknown. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[novumtimes]

REPORT: Democrats Have Put Corrupt Obama AG Eric Holder in Charge of Vetting VP Candidates for Kamala Harris | The Gateway Pundit

Democrats have reportedly put Obama’s corrupt attorney general Eric Holder in charge of vetting VP candidates for Kamala Harris. What could possibly go wrong? How much do you suppose Democrats are paying Holder’s law firm for this service? Politico reports: Eric Holder is running Harris’ veep vetting process Former attorney general Eric Holder is in charge of vetting of running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris, Reuters reported. The news that Holder and his law firm would be overseeing the operation was confirmed to POLITICO by a person with knowledge of the process. RedState has more: Those corrupt, racialized, and radicalized embeds never went away, of course. They rested comfortably under new Obama AG Loretta Lynch, then no doubt wreaked havoc during the Trump administration—which is why Jeff Sessions and William Barr could not do much of anything that was actually productive. Then, Merrick Garland simply picked up where Holder left off. Holder was successful in seeding the ground, and we have been reaping the harvest since 2016. That’s the Deep State in a nutshell. His involvement in the vetting process may reassure Democrats that a longtime political and legal hand is helping to ensure Harris’ pick, should she win the nomination, is free of major conflicts. Any choice needs also to be suited to help her beat Republican Donald Trump and potentially to assume the presidency some day if she were to triumph in November but then at some point be unable to complete her duties. Potential names that have been floated as possible running mates for Harris include Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, U.S. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. Holder has apparently been cashing in on the left’s DEI craze. Since 2018, Eric Holder and his law firm, Covington & Burling, have been conducting “civil rights audits” of Fortune 500 companies. For as much as $2,295 an hour, Holder told the companies to adopt race-based DEI policies. Then the companies got sued. https://t.co/jzvt962yOz pic.twitter.com/mK90uizRS1 — Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) July 22, 2024 RedState is right. These people never go away. There’s too much money to be made in the system. Source link via The Novum Times

[truck-fump]

<b>Trump</b> is 'toast' in classified documents case: Ex-AG Bill Barr - New York Post

New Post has been published on https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://nypost.com/2023/06/11/trump-is-toast-in-classified-documents-case-ex-ag-bill-barr/&ct=ga&cd=CAIyGjUzM2UwMTY5ZmFhZTIwMGQ6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AOvVaw3eCX0KUJCayOX93VYUJNh1

Trump is 'toast' in classified documents case: Ex-AG Bill Barr - New York Post

Donald Trump’s one-time Attorney General William Barr said the former president is “toast” for mishandling classified documents — and Trump has …

[faulentzer]

Time will judge Barr as the worst AG in United States history. A man who trashed his principles, if he ever had any, to kiss the ass of the most inept and corrupt president we have ever had.

[serve-update]

Ashton Kutcher Age: What Is His Career To Success In Her Life?

Chris Ashton Kutcher is a successful American actor, producer, businessman, and former fashion model. He has won a People's Choice Award and been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and two Young Artist Awards.

Ashton Kutcher Age

Ashton Kutcher was Born on 7 February 1978, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. You might find this article to be interesting as well Roseanne Barr Age.

Ashton Kutcher Career

Kutcher became a popular Hollywood comedian after That 70's Show. He appeared in Dude, Where's My Car with Sean William Scott in 2000, Just Married with Brittany Murphy in 2003, and Guess Who in 2005 during the series' run. https://twitter.com/CinemaForensic/status/1622802114161573889 In 2004, he starred in The Butterfly Effect, a science-fiction time travel thriller, and made an uncredited appearance in Cheaper by the Dozen, another studio comedy adaptation. Kutcher's 2003 MTV original series Punk'd have been his greatest cultural impact. He created and hosted the show, which featured him pulling elaborate hidden camera pranks on his famous acquaintances, and he went on to executive produce several MTV reality shows, including Beauty and the Geek, Adventures in Hollywood, The Real Wedding Crashers, and Opportunity Knocks.

Ashton Kutcher Age Kutcher appeared as a "special guest star" on the final season of That 70s Show in 2006 owing to scheduling difficulties with his role in The Guardian. In Killers, the 2010 action comedy he produced, he played an assassin. After Charlie Sheen's sudden exit on Two and a Half Men, he replaced him the next year. The show was successful, making Kutcher rich. Must check this article David Bromstad Net Worth. Kutcher starred in Netflix The Ranch for 80 episodes a year after Two and a Half Men ended. He's appeared on Family Guy and Shark Tank. He guested on The Bachelor in 2017. https://youtu.be/NGwAKK3cjmY Final Words This is a must-watch if you’re a fan of the television show “Ashton Kutcher Age.” Christopher Ashton Kutcher is an American actor, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. If you liked this article, follow our website, serveupdate.com, and don’t forget to follow our social media handles.     Read the full article

[filosofablogger]

A Case Of Too Little, Too Late

To find your conscience a day late is better than never finding it, but imagine the good you could have done if you had found it a few days sooner?  My grandmother used to have a saying for such that “It’s like closing the barn door after the cow already got out.” William Barr was the U.S. Attorney General from February 19th, 2019 to December 23rd, 2020 – 673 days.  During that time he was…

[arpov-blog-blog]

Former AG Barr said Trump became enraged after being told election fraud claims were nonsense

I have little respect for Barr, so....

[not-safe-for-democracy]

Phillip Halpern is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney with 36 years at the DOJ. He recently published an Op-ed piece critical of AG Bill Barr, describing him among other things as Trump's 'lap dog.'

Here's some other points he made in his Op-ed piece titled, "I won’t work in Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department any longer," San Diego Union Tribune, Oct. 14, 2020:

Rather than representing the interests of the American public, Barr chooses to act as Trump’s lap dog.

Barr has never actually investigated, charged or tried a case. He’s a well-trained bureaucrat but has no actual experience as a prosecutor

...his slavish obedience to Donald Trump’s will in his selective meddling with the criminal justice system in the Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases. In each of these cases, Barr overruled career prosecutors in order to assist the president’s associates and/or friends

Barr also turned his back on the rule of law by supporting the president’s selective use of federal troops to assault citizens protesting the killing of George Floyd in Portland, Oregon. Yet he stood silently by when armed right-wing protesters stormed the Michigan state Capitol building to protest the Democratic governor’s public health orders.

Source

[foreverlogical]

Tucker Carlson has happily boosted some of the right’s most unhinged figures for years, but Rep. Matt Gaetz’s appearance on his Fox News show last night—to defend himself after news broke that the Justice Department is investigating him for child sex trafficking—left Carlson bewildered.

Gaetz went on Carlson’s show Tuesday night, a few hours after the New York Times reported that the Florida congressman and Trump ally was under investigation for possibly breaking federal sex trafficking laws.

The probe, which reportedly began in 2020 under then-Attorney General William Barr, is looking into whether or not Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her to travel, according to the Times. It’s part of a larger investigation into Joel Greenberg, a former Florida county tax collector and a political ally of Gaetz. Greenberg was indicted last August on federal charges including sex trafficking a minor between the ages of 14 and 17, the Times reported.

After the Times story broke, Gaetz tweeted that he was the victim of a $25 million “organized criminal extortion” attempt by a former DOJ official which is being investigated by the FBI, and that the Times story was a “planted leak” that was “intended to thwart that investigation.”

In an interview with Carlson that ran for over eight minutes, Gaetz continued to defend himself. “It is a horrible allegation, and it is a lie,” Gaetz said. “The New York Times is running a story that I have traveled with a 17-year-old woman, and that is verifiably false.”

“I do believe there are people at the Department of Justice who are trying to smear me,” he added. “Providing for flights and hotel rooms for people who you’re dating who are of legal age is not a crime.”

Gaetz demanded the FBI release purported audio recordings from a wiretap involving his father, former state senator Don Gaetz, and the former DOJ official he says was involved, David McGee. (McGee told the Daily Beast that Gaetz’s claims were “completely, totally false.”)

After a very convoluted explanation of the alleged extortion scheme, Gaetz then tried to drag Carlson under the bus with him, much to Carlson’s confusion.

“I’m not the only person on screen right now who has been falsely accused of a terrible sex act,” Gaetz told Carlson. “You were accused of something you did not do, so you know what this feels like, you know the pain it can bring to your family.”

“You just referred to a mentally ill viewer who accused me of a sex crime 20 years ago,” Carlson responded. “And, of course, it was not true. I never met the person. But I agree with you, being falsely accused is one of the worst things that can happen and you do see it a lot.”

Gaetz then said that Carlson met the woman, which was news to Carlson. “I can say that actually you and I went to dinner about two years ago. Your wife was there and I brought a friend of mine. You’ll remember her,” Gaetz said.

“I don’t remember the woman you are speaking of or the context at all, honestly,” Carlson said. Gaetz went on to say that the 17-year-old “doesn’t exist. I have not had a relationship with a 17 year old.” Later, he added that “people” are claiming “there are pictures of me with child prostitutes,” something that was not part of the New York Times story and which Gaetz denied.

After the interview was over, Carlson was dumbfounded.“

That was one of the weirdest interviews I've ever conducted,” the Fox host said. “That story just appeared in the news a couple of hours ago, and on the certainty that there's always more than you read in the newspaper we immediately called Matt Gaetz and asked him to come on and tell us more—which, as you saw, he did.”

“I don't think that clarified much, but it certainly showed this is a deeply interesting story, and we'll be following it,” he added. “Don't quite understand it. But we'll bring you more when we find out.”

[nowthisnews]

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‘I believe William Barr poses the greatest threat in my lifetime to our rule of law and to our public trust in it’ —Former U.S. Deputy AG Donald Ayer putting it plainly

follow @nowthisnews for daily news videos & more

[malenipshadows]

+ U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered the release of a 2019 legal memorandum to a government accountability group, ruling the document prepared for then-Attorney General William Barr as he considered his decision did not qualify as protected attorney-client communications. + In the ruling, Jackson characterized the memo as a "strategic" document, asserting that Justice Department officials had come to a predetermined conclusion that Tr*mp would not be charged with obstruction of justice. + "In other words, the review of the document reveals that the Attorney General was not then engaged in making a decision about whether the Pres-ident should be charged with obstruction of justice; the fact that he would not be prosecuted was a given," Jackson ruled.  The memo had been requested by

the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government under the Freedom of Information Act. + Jackson, who presided over Mueller prosecutions involving former Tr*mp campaign manager Paul Manafort and political adviser Roger Stone, also aimed scathing criticism at Barr for his handling of the Mueller report, citing the attorney general's decision to issue a brief summary of its findings only days after receiving the voluminous 448-page report. ... + The decision by Barr and senior Justice Department leaders to clear the former pres-ident of obstruction prompted Tr*mp to declare that he had been vindicated even though Mueller had not made such a declaration. + Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a public records request seeking communications about the obstruction decision after Barr said that he and other senior officials had reached that conclusion (that sitting presidents could not be charged with obstruction of justice) in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal opinions to executive branch agencies. + Jackson ruled that one of the documents requested by the group, described by a Justice Department official as an "untitled, undated draft legal analysis" that was submitted to the attorney general as part of his decision-making, was properly withheld from the group. But she ordered the release of the memo, which concluded that the evidence assembled by Mueller's team would not support an obstruction prosecution of Tr*mp.