By David Futrelle
As you may have heard, special prosecutor Bob Mueller dropped a little bomb today — charging 13 Russians and several Russian organizations with a conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and support the candidacy of one Donald Trump.
It was, the indictment claims, a massive operation, involving upwards of 80 people working out of a Russian troll farm called The Internet Research Agency, not only creating fake internet identities to spread misinformation and anti-Hillary propaganda but also organizing real world rallies here in the US.
The indictment is kind of a big deal. It sets out the scope, and provides some key details, of the Russian attempt to sway the election here. If Mueller can prove anyone in the Trump campaign wittingly colluded with this Russian campaign, they are in deep trouble. Tick tock, as they say.
In the alternative world of the alt-right MAGAsphere, though, Mueller’s indictments today are actually good news for Trump.
https://twitter.com/JohnCooper0610/status/964570270509002752
🔴Deputy AG Rosenstein Confirms Russians Did Not Effect The Outcome of The Election: "No allegation in the indictment of any effect on the outcome of the election."pic.twitter.com/tbFHu2TLSF
— Saving America (@SavingAmerica4U) February 16, 2018
https://twitter.com/RealJack/status/964591593847246848
Even Julian Assange jumped aboard the “no collusion” train.
Mueller "troll farm" indictment today
– explicitly states no collusion
– does not mention WikiLeaks
– states trolls intent to support Trump & Sanders, oppose Clinton, Cruz
– states trolls intent on anti-Trump AND pro-Trump rallies post electionhttps://t.co/uMxBAwOeOY— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) February 16, 2018
The notion that today’s indictment somehow “clears” Trump and his pals is of course absurd. Insofar as it is based on anything at all, it is based on a gross misunderstanding or deliberate misrepresentation of a couple of remarks from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s announcement of the indictments today.
Rosenstein, clearly choosing his words carefully, noted in his remarks that “there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity.”
Nothing in this statement suggests that there was “no collusion.” Rosenstein is simply noting that no Americans are being charged with collusion “in this indictment.”
Mueller isn’t closing up shop just yet, and we can expect more indictments to come. Some of which will, I suspect, involve charges against more than a few Americans for knowingly conspiring with the Russian election-meddlers.
Rosenstein also noted that “there is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.”
Again, that’s not PROOF that there was no effect, or anything like that. The DOJ has made clear in the past that it is not their job to prove or disprove that the Russian meddling led to Trump’s victory, merely that Russians did in fact meddle. The DOJ is professionally agnostic on the issue of effect.
Don’t expect any of this to penetrate the MAGA mind. Indeed, alt-lite conspiracy-monger and alleged wannabe adulterer Jack Posobiec is even charging “The Left” with ignoring reality. (A bit rich coming from a former Pizzagate promoter.)
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/964604360935329793
Others in the MAGAsphere fantasize that Mueller’s indictments today will mean bad news for one particular woman they are not terribly fond of.
13 RUSSIAN#MuellerTime just laid the foundation for prosecuting…
👉HILLARY 👈
Notice how charges included DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE?
Umm…who destroyed her phones, servers and emails?? 😉😆
😎🚔#HillaryIsGoingToPrison🚔👌#MAGA #QAnon #TheFive #Hannity #ObamaGate #Mueller pic.twitter.com/f9RN5B8u0K
— Boca Vista (@bocavista2016) February 16, 2018
This MAGAhead, meanwhile, took a certain comfort in the President’s tiny, upwardly pointed, thumbs.
https://twitter.com/BasedMonitored/status/964594625460752384
You may recall another American president with a penchant for aiming certain fingers upward.
That didn’t work out so well for him.
SFHC:
I’ve been thinking the same thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6f4tZFZ_-g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGqD8-a-REQ
Yep, even Obama smeared her. Not only that, but the media turned on her, which was spoofed by SNL. She mentions that skit here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYxbRY8MVKc
I remember it because it was pretty funny, and so true.
Anyway, both Trump and Clinton gave their detractors plenty to work with, Hillary just had more baggage.
As for the Russian collusion conspiracy theory, again, why collude with them if they were going to spend so little money compared to what Trump was spending? She lost because she was a horrible candidate.
http://gifimage.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/point-and-laugh-gif-9.gif
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/choofed.gif
There’s not even anything left to say at this point.
Sure there is:
I’ve emailed David.
Thank you, SFHC!
blease
It costs very little to influence people on the ‘net, Ruby.
In your case, it’s free.
@Troubelle, I love “blease”.
I’m going to lift that from you.
@PeeVee
It’s a thing that spawned from the Sandsverse (a Tumblr thing involving accounts mimicking human-intellect[?] animals with peculiar speech patterns attempting to do peculiar things). Precisely how I’m unsure, but I get mileage from ‘blease’.
I banned Ruby by popular demand.
And thanks, everyone who’s been posting nice things about my return. I think I’m back for good but it may take me a little while to ramp back up to multiple posts a day.
@David Futrelle
This day just keeps getting better.
@Troubelle,
Whatever its origins, I’m going to nick it, because it’s a perfectly cromulent word.
@David,
Thank you. For all you do. Although several posts a day are nice, please do not overtax yourself. I’m just glad you’re back.
Awesome! Very glad to hear(read) it!
@David, nthing the expressions of happy you are better enough to be back here! Keep well, don’t knock yourself back by doing too much too soon, take care of yourself 🙂
Thank you for making this place what it is!
One thing that gets my goat in all the Hillary-hate is that no one ever acknowledges that, when needed, she is brave.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a40772/hillary-clinton-undercover-civil-rights/
Going alone, under false pretenses, trying to gather evidence of discrimination takes more guts than most people have.
Nthing the nthings of opposablethumbs, Jesalin, and PeeVee.
It’s lovely to see all the new posts, David. But take care of yourself first and foremost.
Sorry, second-most (forgot momentarily that the cats come first, obv)
Katamount, I just saw this; sorry!
Yeah, I don’t think even *then* that’s gonna faze them. I have seen it go over that before, and nope. It didn’t make the hard-core sychophants blink.
It just made them go “we’ll come in and take the oil!”, something that, you recall, the Orange Menace has expressed.