You can't fix stupid
I asked the person I love and respect most in the world a question after watching Kaitlan Collins interview Bill Barr on CNN.
I’ll be precise.
Me: “Is it ever okay to call someone stupid?”
Her: “No.”
Me: “I read a story about someone who picked up a rattlesnake and kissed it on the nose. The snake bit him in the face and killed him. Would you say he was stupid?”
Her: “He was stupid.”
During the interview, Collins referred to a claim by former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin that Barr was present when Trump said that a White House leaker should be executed. He responded by saying:
I remember him being very mad about that. I actually don’t remember him saying ‘executing,’ but I wouldn‘t dispute it, you know… The president would lose his temper and say things like that. I doubt he would’ve actually carried it out.
Barr then went on to say that people would sometimes take Trump too “literally:”
He would say things similar to that on occasions to blow off steam. But I wouldn’t take them literally every time he did it.
Before I call Bill Barr stupid officially, which I will, it is important to recognize the importance of Kaitlan Collins looking one of MAGA’s chieftain’s in the eye and saying:
Why not?
Barr’s response:
Because at the end of the day, it wouldn’t be carried out and you could talk sense into him.
Barr insisted that there was no threat.
I don‘t think the threat is there. The thing that I worry about President Trump is not that he’s going to become an autocrat and do those kinds of things.
Collins pressed Barr on why he doesn’t think that to be the case, and he said that it was just his “feeling:”
Having worked for him and seen him in action, I don’t think he would actually go and kill political rivals and things like that.
Let’s call that the “Collins Line,” which is something every journalist in America should probe and question MAGA candidates about. There are thoughts, desires, intentions and actions. Each is a step down a pathway that ends with death. There has never been political killing that hasn’t been prefaced by thoughts, desires and intentions.
I’ve written a great deal about this general principle:
This moment must be slowed and understood at a molecular level.
If it is the case that the interview between Kaitlan Collins and William Barr isn’t shocking to the conscience of America’s newsroom bosses — and placed squarely in front of the American people as the vital matter it is — then we are in far deeper trouble than I thought.
Let’s take a step back.
What would the reaction have been if I said on national television five years ago that Trump’s lawyers would be arguing before the US Supreme Court that the president has the power to kill political opponents with some justices seeming to entertain the idea within five years time?
Incredibly, that precise argument is being made before the US Supreme Court the same week that Bill Barr decided to disclose that Trump frequently fantasized about killing political opponents from the White House.
Don’t worry about it though. Bill Barr says he doesn’t mean it because Trump could always be talked out of the worst ideas in the end. How very reassuring.
The FBI director reported to this man? He held a position of responsibility for America’s national security and was confirmed by the United States Senate — twice?
“The best and the brightest” has given way to the “worst and the dumbest.”
Let’s try this thought experiment. There are 50 people on a plane. Bill Barr is one of them, so are we, and the plane crashes deep in the Alaskan bush. Miraculously, no one was killed, but the bad news is that help is not on the way. We will have to hike out of the wilderness as a group for 100 miles to safety. We will have to cross five rivers and two mountain ranges.
Here is my question. Would anyone ask or care what Bill Barr said about anything? Truly? He doesn’t seem to have much common sense, or a particularly well-honed instinct for danger. His judgement is appalling, and he seems to have no moral compass whatsoever.
Amazingly, he ends the interview talking about the danger the country faces from — wait for it — Joe Biden, who is the “real threat to democracy.”
It’s the reason why Bill Barr, patriot, has to vote for the man who queried him about who he could kill when he was president.
Nothing to worry about there. Nothing at all.
“You can’t fix stupid,” as the old saying goes. Apparently Bill Barr is a supremely stupid man. He’s so stupid in fact, that it is okay to say it out loud.
Good grief.
Barr is nothing more than an amoral opportunist. He licks his finger and holds it up to see which direction the wind is blowing ( not including the hot air from his mouth) and he speaks consistent in that direction. He doesn’t care that he is inconsistent.
The most troubling thing about Barr is that he actually knows it’s BS but thinks you will accept it as truth. He is a smart and well educated man that thinks everyone should accept what he says without questioning him. He is a known liar. He is known to be corrupt. And when your words are inconsistent with your actions, your words have no meaning.
He is not to be trusted unless it’s for his own personal benefit.
Words can’t express my concerns! I’ve said before,” We’re in a mell of a hess!”