# The Bill Barr Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 2, 2019, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354 "2019-05-02T04:10:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/21 "2019-05-02T14:40:34Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > You cannot simply ask “did Trump suggest this” or “did Trump” order this. Everything he said is considered to be simply “thinking out loud” or “talking with his mouth” - until someone acts on those words, and Trump decides to own the outcome. > > This is what I call the “Trump Uncertainty Principle”. No particle of an idea can be disentangled from Trump’s quantum bullshit universe until he perturbs it by the act of seeking credit for it. > > I hope every future interrogator will consider these quantum bullshit mechanics when formulating their questioning strategy. Kamala Harris made a decent showing. Yes, and a tip o’ the hat to Barr for doing so much to (apparently) advance the novel argument that Trump is absolved of any potential Obstruction charges because he was upset. I can certainly get behind that. “Yes officer, sure I shot that guy on the freeway, but I was upset because he cut me off. Am I free to go?” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/22 "2019-05-02T14:52:24Z")
I’m a fan. _F is for Family_ is a great show. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/23 "2019-05-02T16:03:36Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > You bake a dozen cookies (to raise funds for an orphanage). You leave them to cool and go and do other things, while Bill Barr sits in the kitchen reading the Mueller report (don’t ask why). > > Returning a while later, you notice that there are less cookies than before. > > “Have you eaten one of my cookies?”, you ask Barr. > > “No, I haven’t eaten one of your cookies”, Bill Barr replies. > > You count the cookies and there are only ten. So you check the camera you have set up in your kitchen to capture evidence of paranormal activity, and it shows Bill Barr eating two cookies. > > You confront him with the video evidence.“You lied, Bill Barr! You said you didn’t eat my cookies!” > > Bar replies: “You asked me whether I’d eaten one of your cookies, but I ate two of your cookies.” > > This is how Barr misleads and avoids the spirit of a question. I am reminded of one of Asimov’s Black Widowers stories where the guest has a psychological compulsion to tell the truth and repeatedly declares, with regard to a crime of which he is suspected, “I did not take the cash or the bonds.” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/24 "2019-05-02T16:10:06Z")
I’m conflicted when I hear Barr say things like “we are not exonerating the president” or “we didn’t find enough evidence for conviction”. I mean, I know that he’s just doing CYA (and being lawyery in general) but the part of me that tries to look for the good in people wants to think that even he can’t unequivocally defend The Trump. Yeah, I know, naive. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/25 "2019-05-02T16:23:26Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > I am reminded of one of Asimov’s Black Widowers stories where the guest has a psychological compulsion to tell the truth and repeatedly declares, with regard to a crime of which he is suspected, “I did not take the cash or the bonds.” It’s why Barr didn’t testify before the House judiciary committee today, as he would have been facing expert committee staff lawyers framing questions in such a way that he would not be able to find a way of wriggling out of. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/26 "2019-05-02T16:23:31Z")
If you really think about it, parsing the word “suggest” is an admission. It’s a loud “Yes” ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/27 "2019-05-02T16:37:55Z")
Well this is just fucking stupid: Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, started eating a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken at 9 a.m. while lawmakers and the press waited to see if Barr would show up on the Hill. Cohen then left the bucket — along with a ceramic chicken — on the table where Barr would have sat. > **[Congressman shades Attorney General Barr by bringing bucket of KFC and...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/congressman-shades-attorney-general-william-barr-by-bringing-bucket-of-kfc-and-ceramic-chicken-to-the-hearing-he-didnt/)** > > It was 9 a.m. but Rep. Steve Cohen decided to tuck into some KFC to make a symbolic statement about Barr's no-show (A few must see pictures at the link.) Way to get the whole mess taken seriously, idiot! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/28 "2019-05-02T16:57:07Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > You cannot simply ask “did Trump suggest this” or “did Trump” order this. Everything he said is considered to be simply “thinking out loud” or “talking with his mouth” - until someone acts on those words, and Trump decides to own the outcome. > > This is what I call **the “Trump Uncertainty Principle”. No particle of an idea can be disentangled from Trump’s quantum bullshit universe until he perturbs it by the act of seeking credit for it.** This deserves to be enshrined in . . . whatever the enshrining institution is that enshrines Murphy’s, Godwin’s, and Sturgeon’s Laws. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/29 "2019-05-02T17:15:47Z")
I approve this pitting and stand in awe and admiration at the restraint shown in the OP. I have trouble not thinking about this guy and his boss and a handful of their cohorts in terms of torches, pitchforks, ropes, and augers. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/30 "2019-05-02T17:18:46Z")
I take it the auger is for installing a auxiliary asshole, or expanding the capacity of the original? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/31 "2019-05-02T17:18:50Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > You cannot simply ask “did Trump suggest this” or “did Trump” order this. Everything he said is considered to be simply “thinking out loud” or “talking with his mouth” - until someone acts on those words, and Trump decides to own the outcome. > > This is what I call the “Trump Uncertainty Principle”. No particle of an idea can be disentangled from Trump’s quantum bullshit universe until he perturbs it by the act of seeking credit for it. > > I hope every future interrogator will consider these quantum bullshit mechanics when formulating their questioning strategy. Kamala Harris made a decent showing. “Look, I’m not _saying_ that someone should rid me of this Troublesome Priest, I’m just saying it would be a great thing, you know? We’re just tossing ideas around here!” ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/32 "2019-05-02T17:22:22Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > You cannot simply ask “did Trump suggest this” or “did Trump” order this. Everything he said is considered to be simply “thinking out loud” or “talking with his mouth” - until someone acts on those words, and Trump decides to own the outcome. > > This is what I call the “Trump Uncertainty Principle”. No particle of an idea can be disentangled from Trump’s quantum bullshit universe until he perturbs it by the act of seeking credit for it. > > I hope every future interrogator will consider these quantum bullshit mechanics when formulating their questioning strategy. Kamala Harris made a decent showing. I think this is really the problem. If Barr sits down with Trump and Trump mentions casually. “I don’t know why there is all this Russia investigation still going on. Clinton did a bunch of worse stuff, you should go after her.” Is he actually “suggesting” that Barr open an investigation, or is he just spouting off? Also, should his tweets be counted as suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/33 "2019-05-02T17:22:55Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > I am ashamed to admit how naive and credulous I was when Barr was first appointed, but I’m going to do it anyway. :smack:. I read articles and heard commentary by people I at least semi-respected that said Barr is an institutionalist, he respects the norms of DOJ, he cares about his reputation, he’s close personal friends with Bob Mueller, blah blah blah. I even harbored a wishful fantasy that he had deliberately bamboozled Trump into nominating him so he could come in and reveal himself to be a crusader for truth, justice and the American way. > > Boy, was I wrong. > [@asahi](#): > > Yeah, aside from his views on executive power, nothing indicated to me that he was an off-the-charts oligarch fanboy loyalist. Something I overlooked in retrospect was his connection to Alfa Bank, which is based on Moscow. That should have been more of a warning sign that it was at the time. I’m not going to condemn anyone who admits to having had a lapse of judgement about this administration. But going forward, it would be nice if we could all acknowledge the irrefutable, not-debatable, objective FACT that if an appointee is nominated by the America-hating fuckstick, it is axiomatic that the candidate is both unqualified and disinclined to pursue the interests of the American people. It IS clear that Stephen [del]Goebbels[/del] [del]Himmler[/del] Miller vets these people, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/34 "2019-05-02T17:29:02Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > I am reminded of one of Asimov’s Black Widowers stories where the guest has a psychological compulsion to tell the truth and repeatedly declares, with regard to a crime of which he is suspected, “I did not take the cash or the bonds.” > [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > It’s why Barr didn’t testify before the House judiciary committee today, as he would have been facing expert committee staff lawyers framing questions in such a way that he would not be able to find a way of wriggling out of. Well he is on record as saying he had a problem with the HoR’s format. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/35 "2019-05-02T17:31:59Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I take it the auger is for installing a auxiliary asshole, or expanding the capacity of the original? Mebbee. Or for drilling a well to chuck them into. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/36 "2019-05-02T17:34:32Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > I approve this pitting and stand in awe and admiration at the restraint shown in the OP. I have trouble not thinking about this guy and his boss and a handful of their cohorts in terms of torches, pitchforks, ropes, and augers. …tumbrels… ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/37 "2019-05-02T17:57:46Z")
Benjamin Wittes, editor of Lawfare, who had previously (cautiously) defended Barr and counseled giving him the benefit of the doubt, savagely criticizes him and calls his performance “catastrophic”: > **[The Catastrophic Performance of Bill Barr](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/bill-barrs-performance-was-catastrophic/588574/)** > > The attorney general misled the public in seven key ways. > [@](#): > > I was willing to give Bill Barr a chance. Consider me burned. > [@](#): > > Barr has now acted, and we can now evaluate his actual, rather than his hypothesized, performance. > > It has been catastrophic. Not in my memory has a sitting attorney general more diminished the credibility of his department on any subject. It is a kind of trope of political opposition in every administration that the attorney general—whoever he or she is—is politicizing the Justice Department and acting as a defense lawyer for the president. In this case it is true. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/38 "2019-05-02T18:22:09Z")
The irony about Barr’s attempt to parse meaning into elementary particles by claiming that he didn’t lie because he thought the congressman was asking about Mueller’s team’s concerns rather than Mueller himself is that in the letter to Barr, Mueller consistently uses the word “we.” He can’t even use his already farcical defense. Why is no one in the press pointing this out? ---
**Author:** ![UnwittingAmericans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d9b06d/32.png) [@UnwittingAmericans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwittingAmericans)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/39 "2019-05-02T18:44:37Z")
He reminds me of every thread in Elections. ---
**Author:** ![UnwittingAmericans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d9b06d/32.png) [@UnwittingAmericans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwittingAmericans)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354/40 "2019-05-02T18:47:09Z")
> [@KidCharlemagne](#): > > The irony about Barr’s attempt to parse meaning into elementary particles by claiming that he didn’t lie because he thought the congressman was asking about Mueller’s team’s concerns rather than Mueller himself is that in the letter to Barr, Mueller consistently uses the word “we.” He can’t even use his already farcical defense. Why is no one in the press pointing this out? Not to mention he said the “snitty” letter was probably written by staff even though Mueller’s signature is on it, and nobody bothered to ask him, “Have you ever signed a letter where you didn’t agree with what was in it?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bill-barr-thread/833354.md?page=3)