Discussion: Barr Defends His Use Of 'Spying': It's 'A Good English Word'

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I’ve got a good English term as well, “Porky Pies”

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Really? I happen to think that “obstruction” and “collusion” are also beautiful words with broad uses.

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A very big, very good word. The best word!

I never held the man in high esteem, but he is reduced to a parody.

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And who is going to investigate Barr and his associates to determine if their investigation of “spying” is properly predicated?

I mean, Barr’s actions are predicated on nothing more than partisan accusations. There is not one iota of evidence that the intelligence agencies acted improperly. And IIRC, there is an IG investigation ongoing into the matter…

So what is the predicate of Barr’s investigation. And who is investigating him?

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A perfectly cromulent word. From a fine upstanding defender of the republic.

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It’s interesting. This is a clever man trying to say stupid things to a stupid audience as if talking stupidly were a kind of high-school French you can stumble through when necessary. And here he’s being questioned about his stupid talk by people who aren’t constrained by the need to sound stupid themselves. It’s a strange situation.

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Here’s an even better one: “Perjury”.

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This is America, not England, Tubbs.

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So the Attorney General of the United States has now sanctioned the press use of the term ‘spying’ for any authorized and approved DOJ operations. Good to know.

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Yes lets use one word when describing an action instead of two words. I wonder why then torture was changed into ‘enhanced interrogation’? Can’t fathom why that Barr’s grammar rule didn’t catch on in the Bush II years.

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Barr: “Is a good English word and doesn’t have synonyms…”
Really? What about surveillance? Bugging? Prying? WIretapping? Too name a few!

Damn…jumped in here to say “it’s a perfectly cromulent word”…well played.

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Add to your list “conspiracy.”

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His use of the word “spying” was a mistake, as is anything interesting he says. His job was to be as boring as possible so the media has nothing to talk about and we move on to something else. Every time he makes an accusation against Democrats, it not only makes him look like a partisan hack, but it makes him more interesting to talk about because personal attacks are good for ratings.

The whole point of attacking your opponents as a distraction is to get people talking about something else entirely. If you’re accused of robbing a bank and you attack the police for spying on you, you’re still talking about how the police were spying on you because they think you robbed a bank.

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“My first job was in CIA and I don’t think the word ‘spying’ has any pejorative connotation at all.”

Well, that certainly explains William Barr’s record during the GHWB and Trump Administrations. He is a GOP asset at the DOJ, just like Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Matthew Whitaker. And how he “turned” Rod Rosenstein.

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I’ve another: “Traitor”.

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SO is impeachment.

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Baloney. Spying has dark mysterious and possibly suspect connotations. Investigating is more proper, legalistic, and regulatory. He had word choices and took the deliberate, loaded route to impugn motives of the investigators.

Is the IRS spying on me when it audits my tax info? Does the local constabulary spy on me when I run a stop sign and then get a ticket? Is a mortgage broker spying on me when my financial records are researched? Barr is implying that the FBI counterintelligence apparatus had ZERO reasons to look into the Trump’s Campaign after a large collection of established meetings with a variety of Russians, all of which were categorically first denied by the Trumps. This makes Barr a defense lawyer and not an AG. That he now oversees the FBI is a monstrous conflict of interest.

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