Friday, March 22, 2019

It's Finally Mueller Time in America



It seems like we've been waiting forever. But the signal was finally spotted. 

The caped crusader jumped into his batmobile, and headed for the White House, where the Penguin was in a panic.

And now we can finally say it.



It's Mueller time in America. 

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has delivered a report on his inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election to Attorney General William P. Barr, according to the Justice Department, bringing to a close an investigation that has consumed the nation and cast a shadow over President Trump for nearly two years.

And although we may have to wait a while to find out what's in Mueller's report, the special counsel has a pretty good track report.

A half-dozen former Trump aides have been indicted or convicted of crimes, mostly for lying to federal investigators or Congress. Others remain under investigation in cases that Mr. Mueller’s office handed off to federal prosecutors in New York and elsewhere.

In court, the evidence amassed by the Mueller team has held up. Every defendant who is not still awaiting trial either pleaded guilty or was convicted by a jury. Although no American has been charged with illegally plotting with the Russians to tilt the election, Mr. Mueller uncovered a web of lies by former Trump aides.

And he has tormented Trump more than any other American. 



Mr. Trump has helped make Mr. Mueller a household name, attacking his investigation an average of about twice a day as an unfair, politically motivated attempt to invalidate his election.

And while I am prepared to be disappointed.

Some predict that any disclosures from Mr. Mueller’s report will satisfy neither Mr. Trump’s critics nor his defenders, especially given the public’s high expectations for answers. A Washington Post-Schar School poll in February illustrated the sharp divide in public opinion: It found that of those surveyed, most Republicans did not believe evidence of crimes that Mr. Mueller’s team had already proved in court, while most Democrats believed he had proved crimes that he had not even alleged.

And I have come to believe what James Comey had to say recently. 

Even though I believe Mr. Trump is morally unfit to be president of the United States, I’m not rooting for Mr. Mueller to demonstrate that he is a criminal.

Critics of Mr. Trump should hope for something much harder to distort, or to nurse as a grievance, than an impeachment. 


We need a resounding election result in 2020, where Americans of all stripes, divided as they may be about important policy issues — immigration, guns, abortion, climate change, regulation, taxes — take a moment from their busy lives to show that they are united by something even more important: the belief that the president of the United States cannot be a chronic liar who repeatedly attacks the rule of law. 

I'll still be dreaming tonight about a squealing pig in a pen...



13 comments:

Steve said...

I expect a nothing burger. There is no collusion with Russia, Russia aside from some bot work had nothing to do with Trumps election.

Anonymous said...

Yes Steve, I think we all know your position by now and you may be right or you may be wrong. Re: obsruction of justice, he should be done like dinner. And now that the report has concluded, the SDNY can start indicting the players in the thoroughly corrupted Trump empire, hopefully starting with Donnie jr, Eric and I don't Vanka go to jail. Oh. and her douchebag hubby Kushner. And, not forgetting the grandmaster douche himself, Trump. He'll have a nice going away present waiting for him when he leaves the white house in the form of sealed indictments so let's rejoice at what I see as the beginning of the end for Donald J. Trump.
JD

e.a.f. said...

Before the report was finalized the DOJ jet did make a trip to England and Aspen. What transpired is anyone's guess.

The mandate for the investigation was clear and given the type of investigation, there is no going outside the lines. These types of investigations also prohibit wanderings into uncharted territory and saying nasty things about people not involved in criminal wrong doings.

For those involved, such as Manafort and Stone, they were part of the original pack for which the term "ratfuckers" was created. The late Lee Atwater was the third person.

We may have to wait until the NY SD and ND finish their work.

The question, was Russia an active player? That may never be answered. Manafort knows the answer, and he won't be talking.

As to your wish that "Trump not be re elected, not sure that will come true. people who just returned from Palm Springs, Canadians, their take on it was, Americans may not like Trump and his activities, but the economy is good so they'll most likely re elect him. Having read some American analysis on this, they may be correct.

I see no end to Trump. Various law enforcement agencies may "knock out" some of his people, one by one, but a whole sale elimination just not happening. Americans unlike Canadians are much more divided on issues.

The is also the matter of a democratic party which may eat itself alive by the time the nominations are over. Bernie was very divisive last time. Don't expect anything different this time. Stacey Abramhs may energize the whole thing, but way to many people are running for their egos and career advancement. They have little to offer the American people as President, cabinet ministers yes,

Jackie Blue said...

Canadian media is so fucking dumb, and bereft of creativity. They would have had a real Trump scandal by now if Harper was still PM, but he's not, and they're obviously bitter about that, so to keep up with their older brother downstairs they had to invent the Star Trek mirror-universe character or soap-opera evil twin of "Trumpdeau" out of whole cloth. Once upon a time, the country leader with the fascinating hair whose name starts with T-R-U colluded with "Lava Land" to steal the Québec elections. It's like they took the actual Trump investigation and wrote a lame Canadian fairy-tale fanfic to WWE-style turn Trudeau from face to heel, Disney prince to Disney villain. America's hat has become America's MAGA dunce cap, a feat I never thought it could possibly accomplish. Congratulations Canada, having sent the town criers, the cackling witches and a chorus of Potemkin village idiots with their torches and pitchforks to poach the last unicorn out of jealousy and spite... you're officially an all-American jackass. Which is not a mythical creature at all.

The one upside is that because nothing actually happened in the story of Lava Land besides a mob rush based on lies, Prince Justin, the Caesar Borealis, is not going to the dungeon; at most he'll lose his job and write a tell-all book about "his truth" (aka THE truth) while in exile in, where else, la belle province of Lava Land. Maybe he'll become a teacher at Hogwarts de Brebeuf. That means Princess Ivanka is not going to get any conjugal visits from her Canadian crush, no matter how many marathon hours Weak Andy the nocturnal bridge troll shouts LOCK HIM UP. And they all lived crappily ever after, the end.

Steve said...

Every politician, every media figure, every Twitter pundit and everyone who swallowed this moronic load of bull spunk has officially discredited themselves for life.
...
The people who steered us into two years of Russiavape insanity are the very last people anyone should ever listen to ever again when determining the future direction of our world.

Anonymous said...

Call it want you want, collusion / no collusion but in Trumps maggot driven world he is the shit pile.

RT

Anonymous said...

"everyone who swallowed this moronic load of bull spunk."
In the 5 years I've followed this blog, this has to be the most vile, crudest comment I've ever seen posted on here. Sad.
JD

Steve said...

The report is out, and its what I said from the beginning. Nothing Burger. You should all just thinkaboot how much has been made of nothing. I think Trump is POS but you dont abandon reason no matter how big the turd.

Jackie Blue said...

Well... Interesting (and tragic) parallel in our neighboring countries today: it was the best of times, it was the absolute worst of times. A tale of two cities: the perpetual nuclear-grade swamp that is Washington, and otherwise sleepy, boring, but evidently very jealous, Ottawa. The US AG just turned a massive corruption case into a nothingburger, while the (former) Canadian AG inflamed a nothingburger into Watergate on steroids. Both of whom are going to be responsible for the collapse of 2/3 of North America into neo-fascism. Trump will be reëlected due to a mobilized and "vindicated" GOP, liberals and progressives fighting each other as usual, social media disinfo muddying the waters all around, and the M$M tearing apart the Democrats' already crowded royal rumble. Scheer, not wanting to let go of his morbid Ceausescu/Romanov fantasy and already having demonstrated intent to weaponize the RCMP (despite voting to defund it) against his political rivals, will end up forcing Justin Trudeau into exile out of the country for his own safety, along with his young family who themselves have been sent threats from the yellow-vest vanguard thugs. Perhaps Jacinda Ardern will take sympathy and welcome them in. One thing is certain: Neither Bill Barr nor JWR give a crap about the consequences of their actions and will have no trouble sleeping at night, because they're all about themselves and their supposed "integrity." Still looking forward to a book from Trudeau out of all of this. Might make for good prison reading at Shawshank when we're all in the camps together.

Oh, well. Civilization was nice while it lasted. So was the planet. Break out the popcorn and watch the world burn. Let's go out to the lobby to get ourselves a treat. Personally, for now, I'm going to eat more chocolate to at least stabilize my rock-bottom endorphin levels, in honor of Justin Trudeau, who I still and will always view as a tragic and heroic figure, 0% of what the assorted liars make him out to be. Hail Caesar! All roads lead to Rome, so always look on the bright side of life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M

Anonymous said...

Hi Jackie, a commenter made an interesting point that the lengths that Trump went to, to discredit and obstruct(which he was not exonerated on) the Russia probe would leave any sane person with the impression that he's trying to hide something. Well, he was. Not colluding with Russia, but he knew the Russia probe could open a whole can of rotting worms where Trump Inc. or stInc. is concerned and it did, big time. SDNY is just scratching the surface of this smelly can of worms and in concert with Congress, the Trump family's legal woes are far from over and I believe it will only get worse. So something good did come out of the probe.
Please try to remain positive, Jackie. We survived ten years of the Harper dictatorship and you will survive whatever remains of the Trump shit-show. The fight for what's right is never over, nor will it ever be. Take the good with the bad, roll with the punches, live to fight another day and a few other clichés I wont mention. And of course, always look on the bright side of life.
JD

Jackie Blue said...

Poor Trudeau though... if he can't recover his political career, then he deserves to have his name cleared and the blame shifted to where it belongs: the enemy within. I think that's the most painful part of all this is the endless schadenfreude. The media has already publicly exonerated Trump, but never apologized to Hillary. Great big NYT headline and endless gloating from the usual deplorables on social media. Nonstop breathless coverage that Cult 45 is running with as "vindication." Meanwhile, Hillary remains a crook in the eyes of millions, and Trudeau gets labeled an incompetent failure, a pariah in his own country, thanks to internal traitors feeding the "Harper was right, he just wasn't ready" narrative of Postmedia and its ilk.

https://www.mcclernan.com/2019/03/will-this-canadian-lawlessness-never-end.html

Will this Canadian lawlessness never end?

Canada is a country so lacking in real scandals that their news media has to get its scandals anywhere it can. It's especially a problem since Canadian media looks south and sees that Donald Trump probably breaks the law more in a typical week than Justin Trudeau has done in his lifetime.

I really think that the press holds good people who are politicians - like Trudeau and Hillary Clinton and Obama and Macron - to a much higher standard than assholes like Trump.


I watched John Oliver's segment on public shaming, talking with Monica Lewinsky. Made me cry. It took her 20 years to rebuild. It hopefully won't take Trudeau that long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq7Eh6JTKIg

Anonymous said...

Trump's not getting impeached? There's only one explanation. The Russians got to Mueller.

jrkrideau said...

I have never believed any of the silliness of Trump colluding with Russia. The overall story was just too outlandish and had way too many holes in it even with Trump involved while Putin, Lavrov, etc., are too intelligent to get in such a ridiculous scheme.

I did believe and still do that Trump was terrified that his years of criminal behaviour which almost certainly include money-laundering in Russia, Ukraine and the other former Soviet republics would be probed. Heck, at one time he was investigating the possibility of a hotel or resort in Cuba.

We must hope the materials Mueller sent to the State and Federal law officers in New York contain some of this.

His ideas about getting US troops out of Afghanistan,Iraq, Syria and trying to improve relations with Russia did make sense.