By David Futrelle
Weird how Mueller’s conclusion that his report “does not exonerate” Trump has been taken to mean — by the White House, by mainstream media hacks, by right-wing propagandists and even by a certain segment of the left — that his report totally exonerates Trump and that the whole investigation (which resulted in 37 indictments, 7 guilty pleas and 4 people going to prison) was a waste of time.
Let’s maybe see how things look after we get the report itself — and after the House does its own investigation of the Russia matter and all the rest of the corruption in the Trump White House and over his long, sleazy career. Let’s see Barr and Mueller testify in public to start to answer some of the many questions that remain,
Anyway, here are some relevant tweets, a couple of panda videos, and an open thread.
In other news:
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I am still assuming that the stuff most likely to produce indictment for members of the Trump family has been sent to SDNY, where the justice department can’t meddle. Time will tell, I suppose.
It’s criminally irresponsible for the media to call this an exoneration of Trump when the letter said it wasn’t and to take Barr’s summary as completely dependable when Barr has made a career out of covering for Republicans.
I realize that the MSM are owned by giant corporations and want to preserve the status quo as the wealthy tend to do. But do they not realize that a slide into authoritarianism isn’t actually good for the media? I mean, Fox News will be all right because they’re all ready right wing state media, but everyone else is already on the “fake news” enemies list and will never get off it. Are they so desperate to suck up to authority in the usual way that they’ll destroy themselves to do it? I guess so.
I’m not as disappointed as some people because I already knew that the justice system does not do justice, it is set up to protect the wealth and power of the wealthy and powerful. I never thought Mueller would save us. But I am still angry.
If the Dems have any guts (and they probably don’t) they’ll call Mueller and Rosenstein to testify about why they gave cushy cooperation deals to all those people they indicted if they had no intention of using that cooperation to hold the big fish to account.
Anyway, I hope someone on Mueller’s team is patriotic enough to leak everything. Because I guarantee that there is some damning shit being concealed from us.
I expect so as well, and for a second reason: so the resulting convictions are immune to Trump (or Pence, etc.) pardons.
There may also be Congressional action, up to and including impeachment, of course.
You’d almost think the democrats wasted too much time on this when they could have been fully re-branding themselves as a party of fresh alternatives and not the status quo failures they seem to be. Well, at least they made the world a more dangerous place by ramping up the bellicosity with Russia over this failed endeavour.
Rick,
Are you assuming that Trump didn’t coordinate with Russia to attack the 2016 election?
Or are you saying that it doesn’t matter if he did?
There’s no fresh alternatives that are ever going to be implemented if we have one major political party dedicated to attacking what Democracy we do have. And make no mistake, that’s what they are doing. As right wing ideology becomes less and less popular, the only way they will retain power is by rigging the elections.
@rick
And the fascists have been making the world a more dangerous place by kowtowing to Russia and other autocrats, but sure, let’s focus on how the party not in power has been resisting tyranny imperfectly.
Here’s a really good thread about the subject and why you should not trust the reporting on it. It’s in thread reader form, so it reads like a blog post or editorial.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1109913558333210629.html
So. Three possibilities here:
1) The kind of “progressive” who thinks that the only legitimate change would be to shift the focus entirely to economic issues and ignore “identity politics”. Also, the only truly progressive leader for the party is Bernie, and anyone else means they’re not serious.
2) Not paying attention. At all. To the point that you’re simply mouthing the narrative you’re used to and not even noticing that the second most talked-about politician in the country, the new face of the Democratic party (for all that she’s just one of a new generation that’s shaking things up – and the wisest party elders are working with her on that), is bringing a whole lot of fresh alternatives.
3) Troll.
Which is it?
Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. That is not in question. That is fact. We should be doing a lot more about this.
As for bellicosity, this was an act of war. If they’d tried this thirty years ago, the nukes would have flown, and rightly so.
PS – You used the UK English spelling for “endeavour”. Are you perhaps writing this from somewhere in Europe, comrade?
Where did you find that footage of me getting into a hammock?
I’m shocked at the violation of privacy.
I go in on Thursday to see a doctor about getting HRT! I’m excited!
@Mabret, congo rats (as we used to say when someone leveled up in EQ)! I hope you get good news.
Trump won’t be happy to simply get away with his crimes. No, he will want revenge. And he is exactly as well known for overplaying his hand as he is for his vindictiveness. And now, he thinks he’s untouchable. We may see mass incarcerations of political opponents and efforts to dominate and humiliate every Democrat voter. With trump finally pulling off a win, this is about to get really ugly.
I’ve been waiting for an open thread to ask this. How do I upload an avatar? I’m not really familiar with Gravatar.
@Mabret
I hope they work well for you!
I think I read that congress voted unanimously to release the report so there is probably going to be a fight over that,
I’m also expecting a leak of the report at some point if that drags on (and some fake leaks to muddy the waters).
Go Mabret!! You got this.
Perversely, I can believe that there was no collusion at the very top of the chain. Trump has never masterminded anything in his life, and his kids are even dumber than he is. He likes to take credit for being a smart negotiator and a winner, but Trump is just a passive cardboard figure, a venal mediocrity who’s been surrounded and propped up by criminals all of his miserable life. Every single step of his career has been a fraud achieved with the help of sycophantic cheaters, from getting into Wharton to dodging Vietnam to building a sleazy leveraged real estate empire.
Trump may be profoundly stupid and lazy, but he does know just enough to keep his nose clean. Remember how Cohen said Trump always speaks in code when he wants something done? He leaves it up to the underlings to intrepret his vague orders and carry them out however expeditiously (and sleazily) they see fit.
Mueller may have found plenty of evidence of wrongdoing, but it’s possible that none of it rose to the level of evidence needed for his office to convict for collusion. Collusion is hard to prove, legally (it’s a higher bar than cooperation).
Still, something isn’t adding up here. Why all the plea deals and light sentences for lower level campaign figures, if nothing was there at the top? If the report exonerates Trump, why hasn’t it been released and blasted all over Fox News? I don’t trust Barr’s summary. He was hired specifically by Trump to make the investigation go away. He’s the guy who orchestrated the Iran-Contra pardons. He’s also a rabid religious right-wing dominionist, which means he’s all about covering up for rich white men at any cost, even if it means destroying the republic. We need to see the report before coming to conclusions.
Horse pee…
The blusterer-in-chief exonerated his self!
He’s been exonerated since he sad the “magic words”
NOCO LOOZHUN
I think the lessons here have been pretty well elucidated by Dave and the other commenters, but I think it’s worth underscoring a couple points:
1) Anybody who was pinning their hopes to Robert Mueller to the point of actively meme-ing him as if he was going to march into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and slap cuffs on Donald J. Trump really, really needs to learn a lesson from this (looking your way Wonkette). They should have learned it after the Plame Affair didn’t end with the same happening to Dubya, but twice should really hammer it home.
2) Russian collusion was clearly not the worst of Trump’s crimes and getting Trump personally on that would have been a long shot. Financial crimes will be his downfall, as his obvious history of ripping people off and miraculous bailouts just screams “money laundering,” and it’s a good bet that’s with the SDNY. Michael Cohen is just the beginning.
As WWTH points out, that wasn’t even Mueller’s mandate. It was always about obstruction, which is also more serious.
3) The report will come out in its entirety eventually (leaked or otherwise) and if the media has any integrity (or just basic street smarts), it’ll be front page news for weeks.
@rick
The Democratic Party has ideas coming out of its ears. Hardly any of them have been actually implemented due to Republican administrations and malfeasance, along with gullible centrists.
OT: Ended up watching a movie this weekend that was one of those ones I half-remember having on VHS when I was a kid: The Bounty (1984).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEaxoITrpWU
At the time, I found it kinda boring (as a lot of naval dramas tend to be), but re-watching it, I was honestly blown away but Vangelis’s score. Everyone knows Vangelis as the composer of the Chariots of Fire theme and I have his Blade Runner soundtrack on my iPod, but when I started up The Bounty and heard the opening thrum of synthesizers over a black screen, I was like “Did I put on the wrong movie?”, but then the rising sun over the silhouette of palm trees make their appearance and the foreboding whistle of pipes lend a menacing edge to the erstwhile tropical paradise as the credits start to roll in.
It was amusing to see the first screen appearances of Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson along with Anthony Hopkins in his element. Mel Gibson’s performance as Fletcher Christian was… okay. There were shades of Riggs when he flips out on Bligh during the mutiny, but little else was memorable.
Wouldn’t recommend it to everybody, but give the opening and closing themes a listen and try to picture it in a period naval drama. Every movie should have a synth score at this point.
This is some demoralizing bullshit.
I understand that this is just Barr’s summary of the report but it is still the first impression. They’ve already set the narrative, a narrative which even the liberal media will try to maintain whilst trying to play “neutral”, thinking that will win over what little moderates are left on the Right.
Meanwhile, progressives will have to fight an uphill battle if they want to elaborate on the report and call out the falsehoods, and risk looking “unhinged” and “hysterical”, which the Right is going to capitalize on in any way they can.
What is most troubling perhaps is Trump’s recent meeting with Bolsonaro. Both of them have already expressed their intent to invade Venezuela, albeit separately. However, now they’re together so we might soon see an invasion. And, although I’ve never been a fan of Chavez or Maduro, the fact is that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the World. Imagine what will happen to us if the US seizes control of said oil reserves and installs an aligned dictator there?
Not to mention conservatives throughout the region are also salivating at the prospects of Bolsonaro’s win to try to import that brand of conservatism and open Nazi ideology.
Argentina, Peru, Chile and Colombia are particularly susceptible now, given that the Alt Right has been openly pushing their ideology in all of the aforementioned.
I’m wondering if I should just fuck off to Uruguay, but I’m an attorney. It’s not like I can just use my degree anywhere else.
I want to reiterate Seth Abramson’s point that this isn’t even the conspiracy Mueller was originally supposed to be investigating. It wasn’t about the email hacks – it was about quid pro quo’ing the sanctions away after they helped him win. Coordinating the email hacks is the conspiracy Trump redirected to when called on the actual conspiracy.
Which implies one of two things. Either
A. Mueller spent his time and resources investigating the wrong conspiracy
or
B. Barr conspicuously omitted any mention of the quid pro quo conspiracy for some reason.
Katamount:
The part I remember best is Mauatua’s parting from her father. He bows his head and cries like a little boy. :'(
@Katamouny:
Crown: “Captain, would you point out on the map where you list your ship-”
Bligh: “I did NOT ‘lose’ my ship! It was TAKEN from me by Fletcher Christian!!”
@ Seraph4377:
4) white, middle-class male who wants the political system to focus on economic advantage for him, but recognizes that the Republican party is too corporate focused for his “jeans-n-t-shirt” lifestyle, and wants the Hubert Humphrey Democrats back
The immediately preceding Weird Eddie post timestamped 2:04 did not show up for me until 3:10. It showed up in “recent comments” sidebars on other pages earlier than that, but not by much, around 3:06.
This is ridiculous. It’s time to fix whatever happened EIGHT MONTHS AGO that caused these worsening delays and glitches. A post that bypassed moderation taking over an hour to show up is simply unacceptable, as is having different pages out of sync with each other by over six minutes.
@AsAboveSoBelow
That was just an outstanding scene. For me, that was when the emotional weight just falls right on King Tynah and the audience. After all, Fletcher Christian and the mutineers have effectively signed their own death warrants by commandeering the Bounty and returning for their loved ones, so there was no way Mauatua could refuse to go with them. King Tynah has just the length of the conversation to absorb that he’ll never see his daughter again. And we all feel it.