So this is why Bill Barr is such a bully

[yaesu]

Police in Buffalo shove a 75-year-old man to the ground and blood pours from his ear. Police in Brooklyn knock down a young woman and call her a “bitch” because she asked why she had to leave the street. Federal authorities in Washington fire tear gas at peaceful demonstrators, then lie about it.

Get the feeling law enforcement in this country is being run by a middle-school bully?

If so, you are not wrong.

Childhood bullies have a predisposition to become adult bullies, research shows, and, sure enough, it seems Attorney General William Barr was a teenage bully more than 50 years ago.

Back in 1991, during Barr’s confirmation to be George H.W. Bush’s attorney general, lawyer Jimmy Lohman, who overlapped with Barr at New York’s Horace Mann School and later Columbia University, wrote a piece for the little-known Florida Flambeau newspaper about Barr being “my very own high-school tormentor” — a “classic bully” and “power abuser” in the 1960s who “put the crunch on me every chance [he] got.”

Nobody noticed the Flambeau piece at the time, but Lohman posted it on Facebook when President Trump nominated Barr in 2018, and it took on “a life of its own,” Lohman told me Tuesday from Austin, where Post researcher Alice Crites tracked him down. The article resurfaces in social media each time Barr does something unconscionable — which is often.

The 1991 description of 1963 Barr’s harassment sounds eerily like the 2020 Barr. He “lived to make me miserable,” with a “vicious fixation on my little Jewish ‘commie’ ass,” Lohman alleged, because he wore peace and racial-equality pins. He said the four Barr brothers picketed the school’s “Junior Carnival” because proceeds went to the NAACP, and he alleged that Billy Barr, the “most fanatic rightist” of the four, later “teamed with the New York City riot police to attack anti-war protesters and ‘long hairs.’ ”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/09/so-this-is-why-bill-barr-is-such-bully/

[Stuart G]

1. Thank You for posting...K and R

[yaesu]

2. you're welcome, I heard Jimmy Lohman interviewed today, it was quite an eye opener. nt

[Grasswire2]

3. a perfect fit for T.

vicious, racist bully.

[Grasswire2]

4. How was he ever confirmed....didn't all those who called him an "institutionalist" know?

All those people in Washington who consider him a good custodian of our rule of law.

F**ked up.

[Bradshaw3]

7. Yeah the pundits have misfired on several of those

But he was the worst - by far.

[yaesu]

8. The fascists knew, they just didn't care, in fact, it probably helped Barr in their eyes. nt

[Grasswire2]

9. George W was a bully, too.

Remember?

Cruel to animals, and his brother.

[Mr.Bill]

10. He was the one who engineered the pardons

for the Reagan mob when he was AG under Bush sr.

Crooked politicians (you know, every republican in the Senate) love the pardon guy.

[Bradshaw3]

5. Let's not forget he was bathed in RW Catholicism

I had a boss who fit that mold. Worst bully I ever worked for. I'm sure he is a big trumper humper these days.

[whathehell]

17. Please -- There are bullies in every religious group.

I know..I've been their victim and they were decidedly NOT Catholics.

[Bradshaw3]

23. Please ... read up on the RW Catholics like Opus Dei

Please reread what I wrote and not be so defensive. I wrote "RW Catholics" not ALL Catholics. The group includes everyone from Bork to the man behind Reagonomics to Brett Kavanaugh. There is a certain fascistic type you find is prevalent in these people. Do some research, please.

http://churchandstate.org.uk/2019/06/opus-deis-influence-is-felt-in-all-of-washingtons-corridors-of-power/

[whathehell]

24. Please...Know who you are talking to

and what you're talking about before being presumptuous enough to tell a Catholic with 20 years of Catholic education, what "research" she needs. I've more experience and knowledge of "these people" than you or your little research paper could imagine.

FYI: There was no "one" man behind Reaganomics. Do your research, please, and check out men like David Stockman and Milton Friedman.

[BComplex]

27. No need to be so snarky.

And there are a lot of DUers who are very well read on Opus Dei. That's why we discuss. If you have as much information as was linked in the previous post, by all means, contribute to the information we share here. Your post did not include a link to any information that people could use to further inform themselves.

[whathehell]

28. Did you bother to read the post to which mine was responding?

It was arrogant and condescending to the max.-- Have a nice day.

[BComplex]

29. I do not agree that it was arrogant and condescending, even to the minimum, much less the "max".

I guess that's where the difference lies.

And a nice day to you, as well.

[whathehell]

30. Lol

[BComplex]

26. The Catholic Opus Dei include Clarence Thomas and now dead Antonin Scalia.

The Opus Dei guys are so right wing they're falling off the end of the world.

[liberalmuse]

6. The ex-police officer who trained my nephew in weapons handling...

says that when he was a cop, all his fellow cops were the ones who had been bullied all through school. They'd been beaten up many times and weren't afraid of losing a fight. He said he only fired his weapon twice in 30 years. He worked in homicide. He said that nowadays, the bullies are now on the police force. They'd rather shoot someone than risk losing a fight. He figured if he had to get into a fight, he might get bruised up but didn't consider firing his weapon since he could physically subdue most suspects. We need to get the bullies out of positions of power and off our police forces.

[Traildogbob]

11. So......

As a youth he helped beat people protesting Vietnam. So he fully Supported others going to die in that War. To my knowledges he did not serve. So running the country right now, and our military, (Barr at the DC Park) are two fat ass cowards that were too chicken shit to serve but insisted other go die for their cause, MAGA! Stop calling these two lard asses bullies, most bullies I ever heard of were at least a little tough. Pretty sure Biden could kick either of those asses. Hell, Pelosi could bitch slap em both to tears. Disgraceful they are in command of our soldiers. As a Vet, makes me puke.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. Not just he....he has brothers who were mentioned. n/t

[Traildogbob]

16. A high school

Classmate that ended up in college with him was on Thom Hartmann today. He told about that whole gene pole of assholes. All pricks, perfect trump companion.

[smirkymonkey]

12. The thing is, that the article makes it clear that Barr has always been an asshole and a bully, but

it doesn't really get into WHY he was such a bully (along with his brothers). It hints at the fact that his father was a strict Catholic patriarch (who converted from Judiaism) and an authoritarian, but it really doesn't go into it any more than that.

I am sure someone could have a field day with a closer look into the upbringing of Bill Barr and the history of his family, including his very peculiar father who hired an unqualified Jeffrey Epstein to teach at Horace Mann and later wrote a creepy novel about "about a planet ruled by oligarchs who perform child sex slavery". Bullies just don't appear out of thin air. Especially not when all four of your sons end up being bullies. That's not a coincidence.

We have a little insight as to why Donald may have ended up the way he is, although I honestly think part of it is that he was just born defective. His parents, especially his father, certainly did a number on him.

I really wish someone would write a book someday about why so many high-level republicans are such bullies and sadistic pigs. What makes them this way? Is there some common thread? I think it would be a fascinating subject.

[thesquanderer]

18. Exactly. I similarly found the headline about "why" misleading, that's not dealt with at all. (n/t)

[smirkymonkey]

19. Yes, it was kind of disappointing.

As far as I know, there is no biography of him or any member of his family. I found a reprinted volume of an old book written on the "History of the Barr Family" written in the early part of the 20th century by a William Bickett Barr.

Apparently it is a very poor reproduction, with many misspellings and was never very popular w/ anyone except for a few Barr family members.

Nothing about the more recent Barr family members. The synopsis doesn't really give much information at all.

Now here's a little project for an ambitious biographer! Anyone willing to take it on? I think it could be fascinating if you were able to dive deeply enough!

[Doreen]

13. When children are very young if you want

to determine if they are going to be bullies watch how they treat animals. If your child is abusing animals you should be getting them into therapy and/or medicated and hope that you can change it.

Unfortunately sometimes, no matter what you do you can't fix them but if you know and admit that they are bullies you might be able to work something out to help protect others.

[warmfeet]

14. I was bullied, extensively.

5th grade through the 12th grade.

Never again!

I no longer have the disposition to accept bullying. Of anyone.

I intend to fight back. Very hard, indeed.

I will accept any consequence of this action.

[Progressive Jones]

20. Privileged Irish-Catholic punks can be some of the most arrogant a-holes waling the Earth.

I know. I went to school with enough of them.

[47of74]

21. Same here

I almost didn’t survive high school.

I fucking despise bullies and when one of them gets their comeuppance I shed no fucking tears. Any Pearl clutchers listening in on this here posting who don’t like my attitude know where the goddamn ignore button is.

[whathehell]

25. Yes, privileged WASPS and Jews are the same.

I know, having gone to school with enough of them.

[PufPuf23]

22. Not so much that Barr is a bully but rather Barr is the Attorney

General for a criminally insane POTUS and has been the legal protector of the criminally insane POTUS and his pals of th day and family on the take.

Barr made his spot in the GP decades ago as a fixer.

Perhaps the Democrats could have fought harder against Barr's initial appointment.

Frankly hard to imagine such a corrupt individual as Barr the Attorney General.

Bullies are a fact of life in the USA. Bullies are all over the place. People are proud to be bullies.