Talkback: Well, President Trump finally got on the nerves of Attorney Gen. William Barr, who said yesterday, “I’m not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody.”

  Trump has been tweeting complaints about the how the Justice Department handled the charges against his old friend, Roger Stone, who’s up for sentencing.

  Barr said. “Whether it’s Congress, newspaper editorial board, or the president, I’m going to do what I think is right. I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me.”

  What Barr did not say is that just after Trump’s first complaint about the 7-9 year sentence recommended for Stone, the Justice Department announced it was overruling its front line prosecutors.  Barr previously let it go when Trump attacked the judge in the case and accused former Special Counsel Robert Mueller of lying to Congress.

  Barr said that Trump’s complaints “make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that we’re doing our work with integrity.” He said, “It’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases.”

  As for the President, his ire was pointed at his former Chief of Staff John Kelly, who finally spoke up about the nightmare of working in Trump’s White House. Trump said Kelly “needs to keep his mouth shut.”

  Trump says he always hires the best people, but when they leave him, they are the worst. Trump tweeted, “When I terminated John Kelly, which I couldn’t do fast enough, he knew full well that he was way over his head. Being Chief of Staff just wasn’t for him. He came in with a bang, went out with a whimper.”

Pushback: In what may be the first act of Republican rebellion against President Trump, the Senate voted yesterday to require that he seek congressional authorization before taking further military action against Iran.

  The vote was 55-45 as eight Republicans joined the Democrats to limit the president’s war powers weeks after he escalated hostilities with Tehran. The US was on the brink of war with Iran just last month.

 It’s far from a landslide and the President is likely to veto the bill. He tweeted his objection saying, “We are doing very well with Iran and this is not the time to show weakness.” He said, “If my hands were tied, Iran would have a field day. Sends a very bad signal.”

Return of the Native: Former presidential aide Hope Hicks, who left the White House two years ago to work for the Fox network in Los Angeles, is returning. to the White House. 

  The 31-year-old Hicks first worked for Trump’s daughter Ivanka, got involved with the 2016 campaign, and eventually became White House communications director.

  The announcement says Hicks will be reporting to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, but her title will be “Counselor to the President.”

  Kushner said in a statement, “There is no one more devoted to implementing President Trump’s agenda than Hope Hicks.” 

Outbreak: China for the first time has disclosed the exposure of medical workers to the coronavirus and it’s not good. They say 1,716 medical workers have been infected and six have died.

  Overall, 1,384 patients have died and 64,487 have been infected.

  The NY Times points out that the alarm over coronavirus is overblown compared to what might be an appropriate fear of the common flu. 

  The flu kills about 400,000 people every year, including 34,200 Americans last flu season and 61,099 the year before. So far, the US has had no deaths from coronavirus.

Black and White and Dead All Over: In another sign of the growing business crisis for newspapers, the  McClatchy chain, which owns 30 US newspapers, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

 The company’s papers include the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Charlotte Observer, The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas.

 They say they plan to stay in business, but they’ll do it partly by firing people. The news business … both print and television — lost about 7,800 jobs last year. 

  McClatchy is likely to emerge from bankruptcy under the ownership of a hedge fund that is the company’s biggest creditor. That’s never good. 

  Michael Hiltzik writes for The LA Times that, “McClatchy’s filing comes against the backdrop of fewer journalism jobs, the disappearance of local coverage and greater proliferation of misinformation in public discourse.”

   “In short, he writes, “the spread of ‘news deserts.’”

The Bulletin Board: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought a mansion in Beverly Hills for $165 million. — Continuing their withdrawal from royal life, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle closed their Buckingham Palace office and let go its 15 staffers. — Actress Jane Fonda, who looks shockingly young for 82, says she’s done with plastic surgery. — Gen. Chuck Yeager, the pilot with the right stuff  who broke the sound barrier in 1953 at age 30, turned 97 yesterday. 

Getting warmer: Last month was the hottest January in the 141 years that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has kept track.

  The global land and ocean surface temperature in January was 2.05 degrees above the 20th-century average of 53.6 degrees, NOAA said. 

 This was the 44th consecutive January and 421st consecutive month with higher-than-average temperatures compared to the 20th century average. This appears to be accelerating. The four warmest Januaries have all occurred since 2016. 

-30-