Remember this?
I’m sure you have some cosmic rationale
But here you are with your faith
And your Peter Pan advice
You have no scars on your face
And you cannot handle pressure
The pressure
Pressure
1, 2, 3, 4 Pressure!
Read more: Billy Joel - Pressure Lyrics | MetroLyrics
Jay Barnes is the chairman of the Missouri House impeachment committee. By all accounts, Greasy Jay, as he’s known on Twitter, is also acting like a raving lunatic. He seems to be coming apart at the seems, frothing at the mouth, screaming and threatening lawyers like a school of barracudas in a feeding frenzy.
This week, two lawyers and one of his fellow Republicans demanded apologies from Barnes for his insane screaming during hearings.
Michelle Nassar, a 13-year veteran federal prosecutor, released this statement after Barnes screamed at her for five minutes:
I have never been treated in such an unprofessional manner as I was today by Chairman Jay Barnes during today’s Committee hearings. Chairman Barnes’s demeaning treatment of me was completely unsolicited and deeply disrespectful. I believe the Committee’s commitment to openness, courtesy, and fairness is being undermined by Chairman Barnes. I have never been the subject of public beratement ever, as I was by Chairman Barnes for several minutes today. Today was the first day I had any interaction Chairman Barnes, and he seemed to take pleasure in shouting at me for no apparent reason. Also, the statements Chairman Barnes made today about my law partner are untrue.
Statement of former federal prosecutor Michelle Nassar of May 25, 2018
You heard right. Barnes is screaming lunatic and a liar.
Then, there’s this:
During one testy exchange on Thursday morning, an exasperated Barnes, a Jefferson City Republican, shouted at Greitens attorney Ed Dowd
via Stltoday.com
I wanted to include a quote about Barnes screaming at a fellow Republican on the committee, but it seems stltoday.com has deleted that story. Probably for fear of Jay Barnes showing up at the reporters' houses to scream at them.
I realize there are highly-strung people in every walk of life, but Barnes’s manic behavior seems completely out of place. Barnes is the appointed head of the most important committee in the history of the state of Missouri. The position calls for level-headedness, leadership, patience, prudence, and a little humility. In short, the chairman of a committee on impeaching a governor needs virtue.
Barnes is nothing but a bundle of neuroses and vices. If he’d lived 100 years ago, Freud would have named a condition after him.
Maybe the pressure of the committee’s weighty work is too much for Barnes. He didn’t really do much in his four years in the Missouri House. Maybe he’s just the wrong guy for the job.
Maybe the pressure posed by mounting evidence of Barnes’s corruption and avarice is getting to him. As Catherine Hanaway points out:
We learned yesterday that Chairman Jay Barnes received the secret recordings from Scott Faughn well before any criminal charge was brought, and before he was appointed to chair this committee—yet he did not disclose this information.
We learned today that Chairman Barnes knew about cash payments from Scott Faughn to Al Watkins before the public or the committee knew—and he did not disclose this information.
Former federal prosecutor Catherine Hanaway statement of May 25, 2018
Maybe Barnes hears angry voices that no one else hears, telling him to do awful things to small animals.
Or, maybe, Barnes is more afraid of the Missouri Tax-Credit Mafia (MTC Mafia) than anyone understands.
Clearly, Scott Faughn is so afraid of the MTC Mafia that he’d rather face perjury charges than deal with Sterling Bank’s muscle.
Remember that shady lawyer Al Watkins felt the need to demand a $20,000 payment from Scott Faughn to sneak Watkins’s family out of the state and to hire personal protection for himself. Who else would Faughn and Watkins be so afraid of? To feel the need to build your own 21st century version of the Underground Railroad requires a very specific and verified threat, does it not?
It seems the people who’ve been doing business with (or the biddying for) the MTC Mafia are suddenly very afraid. Is it fear of gangland violence that is driving these men to do terrible and probably illegal things?
Fear is the most powerful motivator there is, and Barnes, Faughn, and Watkins are oozing fear out their pores. They’re acting like very scared men.
It’s easy for people with a sense of justice to get angry at corrupt individuals like Jay Barnes, Scott Faughn, and Al Watkins. But, maybe, we should consider the incredible pressure they’re under. Enough pressure to make at least one of the group put his own family into hiding in an undisclosed location.
Perhaps a future Missouri House committee will investigate the dark forces behind the MTC Mafia.