IIRC, didn't the IRA want to come to America to testify after being indicted in absentia and then Meuller freaked out that he would have to give discovery to their lawyers and asked the judge to intervene.

Posted by: Anunnaki | Apr 18 2019 16:27 utc | 1

Contrary to fighting Trump's terrible policies, the Dems collude with them. There are always enough Dem votes in Congress to pass whatever horrific legislation Trump wants. Meanwhile, the two years of Russiagate propaganda preempted any investigation of Trump's actual crimes. But the McResistance did wear pink pussy hats, so that must count for something.

Posted by: NoOneYouKnow | Apr 18 2019 16:48 utc | 2

Why would anyone in Washington defend Russia?
What would they gain?

They need to pick their battles and siding with Russia is short on benefits, that is why the nonsense about the IRA is left standing.

Can you see the headlines?
"Trump sides with Russia"

"Trump defends Russia"

"Republicans believe Russians over our own American Intelligence Agencies."

Posted by: librul | Apr 18 2019 16:53 utc | 3

I disagree with you on the obstruction, since no one displayed more obsessive consciousness of guilt than Trump and tried to act on it and was held back and protected by aides. That's not to say he colluded with Russia, it's to correctly assume he's hiding things besides his tax returns; dirty secrets that still have not come to light, and more serious than his illegal hush payments to porno stars. Not to assume from his behaviour that he's dirty is really disingenuous.

Trump's policies are bad. It is high time to get back to real politics and fight him were its is worth to do so.

Really? I have yet to see a serious attempt to do so here (blaming everyone and his granny but him, and painting him like a useful idiot rather than guilty as sin). So, this is great news!

I'm waiting...

Posted by: Circe | Apr 18 2019 16:56 utc | 4

The spinning at the MSM is going as expected.

Here is what Reuters has on their front page as the top headline immediately after release of the report:

"Mueller report details possible Trump obstruction"

Subtext under main headline:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report detailed a series of incidents in which President Donald Trump took actions to impede the probe that raised questions of whether he committed the crime of obstruction of justice.

Posted by: librul | Apr 18 2019 16:57 utc | 5

Note: Moved this comment of mine from Open Thread, which has become Circe's playground.

= = = = = =

This is important and speaks to the real manipulation of the 2016 Presidential election: How Has Former MI6 Spymaster Richard Dearlove Dodged Scrutiny Despite Links To Russiagate?

One wonders if Halper, Dearlove, and Haspel ran the 'op' to initiate a new McCarthyism. Reinforced by US IC "findings" (17 intelligence agencies agree!! Except not - that was a lie) pushed by Brennan and Clapper.

Then consider what appears to be a cover-up by Mueller, Comey, and Barr (Note: Mueller is Comey's mentor and Barr is close friends with Mueller) as outlined here: New VIPS Memo:

So, if it wasn’t the Russians, [then] who left the “Russian” bread-crumb “fingerprints?” We do not know for sure; on this question we cannot draw a conclusion based on the principles of science — at least not yet. We suspect, however, that cyber warriors closer to home were responsible for inserting the “tell-tale signs” necessary to attribute “hacks” to Russia....

Binney, a plain-spoken, widely respected scientist, began by telling Pompeo that his (CIA) people were lying to him about Russian hacking and that he (Binney) could prove it. Pompeo reacted with disbelief, but then talked of following up with the FBI and NSA. We have no sign, though, that he followed through.... [Furthermore[ we told Attorney General Barr five weeks ago, [that] we consider Mueller’s findings fundamentally flawed on the forensics side and ipso facto incomplete. We also criticized Mueller for failing to interview willing witnesses with direct knowledge, like WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange.

If, as we strongly suspect, Mueller is relying for forensics solely on CrowdStrike, the discredited firm hired by the DNC in the spring of 2016, he is acting more in the mold of Inspector Clouseau than the crackerjack investigator he is reputed to be....

You [addressing Pres. Trump] may be unaware that in March 2017 lawyers for Assange and the Justice Department (acting on behalf of the CIA) reportedly were very close to an agreement under which Assange would agree to discuss “technical evidence ruling out certain parties” in the leak of the DNC emails” and agree to redact some classified CIA information, in exchange for limited immunity. According to the investigative reporter John Solomon of The Hill, Sen. Mark Warner, D,VA, Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, learned of the incipient deal and told then-FBI Director Comey, who ordered an abrupt “stand down”and an end to the discussions with Assange.

<> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>

IMO the Deep State had two main objectives in the 2016 Presidential election: elect a nationalist President and initiate a new McCarthism. Discrediting Wikileaks ran a close third. And settling scores with Flynn was also important to them (Flynn had told the world that the Obama Administration made a "willful decision" to support ISIS).

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 18 2019 16:59 utc | 6

I hate to admit but kellyanne Conway was right ... collusion = delusion

Posted by: DG | Apr 18 2019 17:01 utc | 7

Hillary won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College. Those on the left tried intimidation on those electorates to switch their votes, threatening to use physical harm if they didn’t. Talk about interfering in an election. Will that ever be investigated?

Posted by: Jose Garcia | Apr 18 2019 17:01 utc | 8

As usual I agree with more than one person's seemingly incongruous opinions here.

1. @#1 Annunaki - Do you have a link for that allegation about the IRA? That would make for some very interesting "conversation" on my next family trip.

2. re#2 NoOneYouKnow - Agree. When can we finally cut the bullshit? Pelosi threw AOC under the bus as quickly as she could. The true collusion is between establishment Democrats and the GOP - and corporate America/Wall Street. Has been forever. Add the media and social media.

3. @#3 Circe - You hit the nail on the head with Trump. Screw the Russian government connection, he was worried as sh*t that some of his numerous past dirty dealings were going to surface like they did with Manafort. Surprised they haven't already. Where are his tax returns, Dems?

Also, I keep seeing vague references to various splinters of the Mueller probe that were passed off to state AGs and the like. Does anyone have ANY information on this?

Thanks, as usual great read.

Oh yeah - The Intercept has a good article on Venezuela up: https://theintercept.com/2019/04/18/venezuela-idb-maduro-guaido/

Posted by: KC | Apr 18 2019 17:14 utc | 9

I like how Twitter is keeping things up to date by following the CIA play book: "we uncovered additional information allowing us to more confidently associate them with Venezuela.”

Venezuela?!? Of course! But don't forget Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Nicaragua...

Posted by: Lavrenty | Apr 18 2019 17:16 utc | 10

@#8 Jose Garcia - "Those on the left tried intimidation on those electorates to switch their votes, threatening to use physical harm if they didn’t."

LOL, another person that confuses the Blue arm of the War Party with "the left" - cute! Thanks for the laugh.

Anyway, nice try - you seem to have forgotten the not-so-veiled threats from Trumplandia (stemming from the man himself) on what would happen if HE won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote somehow - OR - if he somehow lost. You righties are pathetic.

P.S. George W. Bush - the father of all these Obama/Trump wars was given the Presidency by a state in which his brother was the governor and solidified by the activist right wing of the SCOTUS. So what are you b*tching about, again?

Posted by: KC | Apr 18 2019 17:18 utc | 11

How exactly was it established that the IRA intended to "sow social discord". Is there any IRA witness that said so? Any documents? No. It is a made up reasoning. The IRA activities were driven by commercial interests. To get as many page-views as possible IRA personnel posted memes on both sides of the political spectrum simply because that is where the viewership is. Just ask Foxnews or CNN. There was no political intent in the IRA's activity. To claim that it intended to "sow social discord" is baseless nonsense

That does not answer who paid for the clicks, and what was the information the clicks led to. Basically a foreign power is not supposed to run election adverts.

Memes on both sides of the political spectrum could very well have been anti-Hillary ads for Republicans, DNC leaks for Democrats, and pro Hillary/anti Sanders stuff for Sanders supporters, the idea being to motivate Republicans to vote and disgust Democrats to keep them from voting.

Facebook is THE tool you would use to create confusion and cause a break up of social relations, simply by its psychological user profiles and the ability to spread news to some groups but not to others unchecked from the outside.

Any professional in psychological warfare would have a go just for testing.
Cambridge Analytics was a British psychological warfare company - and they cooperated with Russia.

Either business is global or it is not, and if you privatise secret service it is global business :-))

Posted by: somebody | Apr 18 2019 17:18 utc | 12

@12 "somebody" - Basically a foreign power is not supposed to run election adverts.

Awww that's precious. When will you be informing the United States government that they are to cease all such activity post-haste?

Posted by: KC | Apr 18 2019 17:21 utc | 13

thanks b... i look forward to your comments after reading the full report...

"the IRA intended to "sow social discord""... it could be argued social networks - facebook, twitter, instagram and etc. etc. "sow social discord"... is that russias fault too?

obviously there is way too much subjectivity in all of this.. the fact they cia/fbi are unwilling, or unable to define how the clinton e mails came out is another way to add to the subjectivity here.. nothing concrete - just specualation.. russia released them and etc. etc. speculation... where is the proof as b asks? there is none, but there is plenty of subjective speculation and innuendo - all abusing a foreign country... how ethnocentric and convenient that is!

here is a subjective thought.. this is just what the usa deep state wants and just what the western msm is happy to fulfill..

Posted by: james | Apr 18 2019 17:21 utc | 14

I haven't read the entire Mueller report, but reading the first 15 pages is plenty to see that it's a load of BS. As b says, completely unsubstantiated conclusions are expressed as fact, such as "In March 2016, the GRU began hacking the accounts of Clinton Campaign volunteers and employees, including campaign chairman John Podesta." And then it says the GRU released further materials through WikiLeaks. Not only is that not proven, all the evidence says there's no connection whatsoever between these events. So the Mueller report constrains itself to the talking points of the Atlanticists, i.e., Russia is bad and everything Russia does is an attack on the US, etc.--and does so without presenting any supporting forensic evidence.

Just at the time when propagandists such as Maddow should be forced to eat their hats, they will find plenty of friendly language in the report to continue peddling their conspiracy theories.

Posted by: worldblee | Apr 18 2019 17:21 utc | 15

@1 Anunnaki

Judge rejects Mueller's request for delay in Russian troll farm case

A federal judge has rejected special counsel Robert Mueller’s request to delay the first court hearing in a criminal case charging three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens with using social media and other means to foment strife among Americans in advance of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

WHAT A DISGRACE! Special Counsel Mueller Charged Russian Company Not in Existence at Time of Charge!

What was not yet available until last night was the transcript of the hearing. The reason the Concord Management attorneys called the case a ‘proverbial ham sandwich’ was because one of the entities indicted by the Mueller team, Concord Catering, was not in existence at the time the crimes were alleged to have taken place.

Posted by: Tobin Paz | Apr 18 2019 17:31 utc | 16

regarding your commment "Unfortunately Russiagaters will not give up on their conspiracy theories anytime soon."
emptywheel is fast out of the gate, lol... The Many Lies and Prevarications of Bill Barr clearly their is a lot of hate and anger to tap into in the usa...at some point people need to recognize focusing on the hate and anger is producing the opposite results they claim to want..

Posted by: james | Apr 18 2019 17:34 utc | 17

There is one thing Mueller did not address. The collusion theory originated inside the Obama administration and it was based on evidence provided by US and British intelligence. Almost certainly this evidence was bogus. One would think that providing false evidence in an effort to frame Trump and his campaign would be highly relevant highly relevant to any investigation into the basic charge of collusion. But Mueller did not go there.

It seems pretty clear that Clapper and Brennan were active in pushing those false charges. Perhaps there should now be a Senate investigation into the activities of the FBI and CIA in creating these false charges. The Church committee hearings that were held in the 1970s are a good precedent for such an investigation.

Posted by: ToivoS | Apr 18 2019 17:47 utc | 18

Librul. Despite Barr's loose interpretation of Mueller's expensive digging expedition, no collusion with the Russian government was found. It wouldn't be defending Russia to say so but a statement of fact. The Truth.
Trump ran on detente with Russia and it played well with the voting public. Much better than Hillary's war mongering. Don't get sucked into Reds under the bed neo McCarthyism. It was a pack of lies during the cold war and ite a pack of lies today. Circe. Your interpretation of Trump's 'obsessive consciousness of guilt' has no investigative value.
b I couldn't agree more with your final statement. There is plenty of productive work the Dems could and should be doing.
Sadly, they appear to be preoccupied with flooding the presidential field with Bernie spoilers, obstructing single payer health care and eating their own.

Posted by: CD Waller | Apr 18 2019 17:57 utc | 19

circe 4

"I disagree with you on the obstruction, since no one displayed more obsessive consciousness of guilt than Trump...it's to correctly assume he's hiding things besides his tax returns; dirty secrets that still have not come to light"

As much as I try I can't understand what you mean. What could possibly be worse than the open mass murder of women and children which has been the favorite action of Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump? Obviously anyone willing to vote for any such vermin (I throw in the likes of Sanders as well) couldn't care less about such ticky-tack stuff as "tax returns", such as is suddenly so important to you where it comes to Trump.

You've openly said hundreds of times now you want the open war criminal Hillary Ribbentrop to be president. On what basis, given what you pretend to dislike about Trump?

Posted by: Russ | Apr 18 2019 17:59 utc | 20

Thanks b for undertaking the unpleasant task of culling through a politicized report from a politicized witch hunt that assiduously avoided asking questions of those few people who could provide actual evidence thus halting the hoax in its tracks at its beginning. I've noted in looking into all the major cover-ups since Warren Commission that omitting key witnesses is an ongoing habit of those doing the "investigating." The actual criminals in this entire affair--a grandiose cover-up--are Hillary Clinton, the DNC, and many of their associates--and Barak Obama and others within his administration that devised the cover-up/obstruction of justice.

Yes, there are still those crimes to investigate, but I wager they'll remain covered-up.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2019 18:00 utc | 21

One of the Russian companies charged by Mueller, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, hired American lawyers to defend it an American court -- the US prosecutors are fighting tooth and nail to to prevent the obtaining o pre-trial discovery of documents ... 3 million documents have been declared by the prosecutors as being "sensitive" and non-discoverable ... the battle continues.

Posted by: chet380 | Apr 18 2019 18:14 utc | 22

More friggen' political theater for the masses. The Dem. leadership has not the will or intention to impeach DJT.

The "foodfight" will continue, and keep the necessary issues( medi-care for all, infrastructure investment, ceaseless interventionism, etc.) from being discussed.

And, making the ruling class very happy.

We, in the U$A, have one major political party, the party of $, and it owns the majority of our so-called "representatives".

On with the show..

@ 21 said;"Yes, there are still those crimes to investigate, but I wager they'll remain covered-up."

ABSOLUTELY!!!

Posted by: ben | Apr 18 2019 18:28 utc | 23

What the report states, as fact, is:

"The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion."

The report can't find any prove that Trump was involved but that just doesn't matter. Trump is unimportant, irrelevant. While Trump supporters will be shouting out that their champion has been vindicated, what the report really amounts to is a big-step towards war with Russia.

Think:- Trump was elected with the stated aim of peace with Russia. Now the US has the incontrovertible lie-truth that Russia tried to attack US democracy; and Trump is all onboard. This could not have been achieved if Clinton had been elected.

I am sure that the irrelevant argument about whether or not Trump was involved will continue. BUT NO ONE IS DISPUTING THE LIE-TRUTH THAT RUSSIA "INTERFERED IN THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN SWEEPING AND SYSTEMATIC FASHION."

The US are moving towards war with Russia and Russia are preparing to defend themselves.

The 2020 US election will probably be all about Russia and the candidates are likely to be doing their very best to outdo eachother in their Russophobia.

The next step, when the time is right, when Americans are judged sufficiently credulous, will be a false-flag on US soil blamed (not on muslims or white supremacists) but on Russia.

Posted by: ADKC | Apr 18 2019 18:34 utc | 24

ADKC: This could not have been achieved if Clinton had been elected.

Bingo.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 18 2019 18:36 utc | 25

The Deep State wanted to elect a MAGA nationalist - as Kissinger had called for in his WSJ Op-Ed of August 2014. Hillary helped to make that happen. And Trump helped to make Russiagate happen.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 18 2019 18:39 utc | 26

IRT B's request not to waste effort on challenges likely not to make a difference. I observe no Trumpy program yet, promises to improve America nor reverse the ever declining quality of life Americans are experiencing (As wages double, costs triple as federal grants increase, the corporations are getting wealthier). Make the USA Oligarchs Wealthier programs all expose Americans to more risk and greater loss of wealth. Fracking, 5g energies, wars, better internal surveillance tailored to capture the most minute behaviors of every American, and foreign management of Americans via the USA as a conduct.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/12/g-is-about-get-big-boost-trump-fcc/?utm_term=.c9e453858d1a&noredirect=on

and this https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Shot-2019-04-17-at-8.43.10-PM.png

Posted by: snake | Apr 18 2019 19:00 utc | 27

@24 adkc... well said.. i see it much the same way too.. it is easy to get lost on the sideshow of trump, mueller, and barr etc. while overlooking the key point you make and the reason for this mueller investigation - this is about war with russia, plain and simple.. and it will continue into 2020 as well..

Posted by: james | Apr 18 2019 19:21 utc | 28

@ 25 & 26; Double Bingo!!

And why? IMO, because the corporate deep state must keep the $ machine churning out dollars to our corporate masters through fear of the "other".

War, and prep for war, is VERY profitable.

Profit uber alles...

Posted by: ben | Apr 18 2019 19:23 utc | 29

Regarding the likely continuance of anti-Russian rhetoric, this Philip Giraldi item informs us of the following:

"A current bill originally entitled the 'Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act (DASKA) of 2019,' is numbered S-1189 [linked to within item]. It has been introduced in the Senate which will '…require the Secretary of State to determine whether the Russian Federation should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and whether Russian-sponsored armed entities in Ukraine should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations.' The bill is sponsored by Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado and is co-sponsored by Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

"The current version of the bill was introduced on April 11th and it is by no means clear what kind of support it might actually have, but the fact that it actually has surfaced at all should be disturbing to anyone who believes it is in the world’s best interest to avoid direct military confrontation between the United States and Russia."

Giraldi generally concludes the sponsoring Senators are insane--"The Senatorial commentary is, of course, greatly exaggerated and sometimes completely false regarding what is going on in the world, but it is revealing of how ignorant American legislators can be and often are"--but we just finished a witch hunt fueled by such insanity. Some anti-Projection medication is drastically needed for all too many people wielding power in The Swamp.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2019 19:29 utc | 30

Posted by: KC | Apr 18, 2019 1:21:20 PM | 13

Actually, the US don't. They are into all kind of regime change but have local proxies for that.

Russia did this without local proxies. It is pretty crude stuff. You can load all the adverts down here.

There is an analysis here that sounds correct.

“In a normal influence campaign, you do these things called ‘audience analysis’ and ‘product testing’ to see what works before you put it out there. They didn’t. They try everything, then go with what works,” said Watts. “They skipped the product testing phase. They didn’t do it. And they also don’t care.”

Watts said Russia’s forays into YouTube influence is “probably new for them in the U.S. space” after years of social media campaigns across Eastern Europe.

“They thought they were going to do something really cool and amazing—and I’m sure they thought it came out amazing,” he said. “But it didn’t take off, and they showed their hand.”

Who paid for this is anybody's guess. Might have been just as well Cambridge Analytica and the strategy behind the targeting theirs.

Posted by: somebody | Apr 18 2019 19:49 utc | 31

As if to balance the article cited @30, there's this "Moscow’s Strategy: To Win Everywhere, Every Time" by Federico Pieraccini. Blowback at Neocon inspired conflict has allowed "[t]he ability of the Russian Federation to mediate and be present in almost every conflict on the globe restores to the country the international stature that is indispensable in counterbalancing the belligerence of the United States."

The result that Pieraccini sees isn't as much Multipolar as a reversion to a bipolar world:

"Trump's 'America First' policy, coupled with the conviction of American exceptionalism, is driving international relations towards two poles rather than multipolar ones, pushing China, Russia and all other countries opposed to the US to unite in order to collectively resist US diktats."

One wonders if certain Senators will awaken to the reality of the world their policies have created or if they'll continue smoking their own Projection.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2019 19:49 utc | 32

So obstructing an investigation is an offence. May I present Hillary Clinton.
So endangering/compromising US national security is an offence. May I present Hillary Clinton.
So profiteering and using office to extort wealth is an offence. May I present Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and the Clinton Foundation.

Silence from Trump, FBI, and the entire corrupt political class. Scumbags!

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 18 2019 20:15 utc | 33

@20 Russ

Only a Zionist would equate Sanders with Ribbentrop. 1. Zionists engage in hyperbole, especially when the threat to them appears harmless to others.

Lemme tell you something. IMO, Zionist policy is responsible for the worst kind of atrocities of this Century and of course with the help of patrons they latch onto like the U.S. led by Trump and in the past Obama with Hell-ary and Bush to do their bidding.

2. Again, Zionist m.o. is to engage in whataboutism as a deflective measure.

Sure I care more about those crimes you mention and condemn every President for them as I slammed Trump this week for vetoing the Resolution to end U.S. involvement in Yemen.

So don't throw hypocrisy in my face. However, I can still hope and pray and push for whatever criminal endeavor Trump engaged in to be discovered to bring that bastard to his knees and thrown in prison where I know he belongs. And if the greater crimes he's committing and will commit mattered to you you would wish that too! But strangely instead you push back with your whaboutism? At this point who fucken cares what takes the orange menace to this planet down??? Obviously, you do. You'd rather he has more time for Neocon destruction. 3. Isn't it really that you hope his other petty crimes don't get in the way of your invasion of Iran wet dreams? 4. If I remember correctly you're the one who called me an idiot for rightfully hammering away at Zionism. HA-HA You're so easy! So transparent. So I should wait til Trump is condemned for war crimes like I waited with Bush?

Got it.

NOT! I'll do everything my poison pen allows and my humble power of dissent allows to see the door slam shut behind Trump when he finally gets kicked out of the White House hopefully in the most humiliating way possible. So that means I'll be working against the likes of you who curiously resist that glorious outcome at every turn with your artful distortions of the truth, and I'll be on your case starting 3,2,1...yesterday! Get ready, cause I know bad intent when I see it and I'm going to dissect your every word.

Posted by: Circe | Apr 18 2019 20:15 utc | 34

@ circe 34

I was only able to read the beginning of your gibberish before it became too stupid to continue.

I'll stick with the electoralist record, thank you. For example that Trump = Obama = Clinton = Sanders.

Posted by: Russ | Apr 18 2019 20:26 utc | 35

Bill Binney and the VIPS scrutinized the claims about Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) based on the file transfer speed, which computer experts say could not have been conducted from Russia but could match the speed of a thumb drive.

In Mueller’s report, he claims that the GRU leased a computer inside the United States to transfer the file, which would explain the discrepancy and debunk the VIPS claim.

Too bad that the evidence for Mueller’s claim on the computer’s location is redacted and the rest comes from an indictment not meant to go to trial. Where did he get it? We will never know unless the full, unredacted report is released.

Until that time, I’m placing my bets on the fact that the information comes from the discredited, partisan cybersecurity firm that started this mess, Crowdstrike.

What does everyone else think?

Posted by: Anne Jalcard | Apr 18 2019 20:29 utc | 36

i was just mentioning in another comment section that the new "reasoning" among those who want to die on the russiagate hill is "mueller couldn't find enough evidence to prove collusion". there's oh so much smoke despite a complete lack of fire, apparently. what a shame that such obvious "evidence" was missed by the multimillion dollar kabuki show conducted under the pressure of the entire beltway Permanent State establishment and headed by a guy who ran the entrapment machine known as the FBI.

as for whether they'll move on and be an actual "resistance", that was the whole point of this bullshit broadway production to begin with. they've always agreed with 99% of what he does but didn't like his "style". just as scum right types screeched about obama being a "kenyan socialist muslim" or whatever but really only hated that it was someone with a drop of melanin doing what bush had been doing for the previous 8 years.

it's the same for putin, in fact. they whine about him "outlawing the gays" and "invading" this or that country but deep down they know he's a capitalist who licks saudi and israeli boots just as well as any western stuff suit. when he's gone whatever oligarch-approved guy fills his seat will be treated as a peer (or, if they get their way, just another vassal). same vodka, new bottle.

Posted by: the pair | Apr 18 2019 20:33 utc | 37

George Papadopoulos's story on why he thinks that the RussiaGate probe was started is something out of The Parallax View but, alas, rings true: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, stopping Brexit, and abandoning an Atlanticist foreign policy were opposed by a CIA and corporate political establishment, who created the fake Steele dossier to bring down Trump (the TPP, and also Brexit, I believe, were in the dossier as reasons why "Putin" wanted Trump to win)

Posted by: Anne Jaclard | Apr 18 2019 20:33 utc | 38

The ship was the cargo...

Americans, easily misled at the best of times, have been horribly misled on the undisclosed purpose of the Mueller Trump-Russia collusion, and with very good reason. Russia collusion was a dead duck before the SC was formed. This is clearly documented by the chronology. That's why the Maddow/media Rush-ah Rush-ah hyper-ventilation was important. Endless sound and fury was a surrogate for a wannabe storm. Keep the peeps in a permanent froth and maybe they won't notice there's no beer in the stein.

Not unlike the Grand Jury process, the SC created an institutional obstruction that impeded a Republican Congress' and POTUS' access to key witnesses and unredacted documents, while also creating a potential obstruction of justice tweet-trap for Trump, which obviously failed.

However when there is no crime (as only the accused would definitively know), the accused can yell and scream all he likes. Justice cannot be obstructed by a falsely accused man. We already know from the summary Barr document that there was no collusion, so...

The SC performed in a manner similar to that described by Tom Cruise here (at 4:25) in The Firm as a ship set sail with instructions never to arrive. Unlike in The Firm however, Mueller's hull houses no actionable cargo. The SC was designed to exist, persist, fish and perhaps catch the occasional process offender in the net.

Here's a riddle: what a process crime? It's a strange sort of fish that you find only in nets, never in the ocean.

Mueller fished until he could fish no more. Barr ordered him to port. Now he's opening the hold. Apart from some prurient bits and pieces which the Dems hope desperately to spin into political hay, the hold is empty.

Release The Whole Report? That's the latest mantra for people who seem unable to swim without lurching from one red herring to the next.

@ 4:25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikBZK-sG2A8&fbclid=IwAR3EFGrcN9hMV6SUAaR-DAjZay-2w8PzpWAwq70_ZS_ylTcLHPQD3WkFdjo

Posted by: Full Spectrum Domino | Apr 18 2019 20:37 utc | 39

As for the "bots and trolls," it's a total hoax, I've seen real person after real person identified as Russian Bots on Facebook and Twitter and then push back. It's an internet marketing scheme. The "international warfare against America" that was the Bernie Bros memes in Facebook pages were run out of Britain by a man in a council flat, Gordon Dimmack, who wanted to make a quick buck. Not an ounce of this story appears to be true.

Posted by: Anne Jaclard | Apr 18 2019 20:38 utc | 40

I had posted at @5 :

The spinning at the MSM is going as expected.

Here is what Reuters has on their front page as the top headline immediately after release of the report

A couple or so hours later Reuters figured out how to spin it even "better":

Headline:

"Mueller report details Trump actions to impede inquiry"

With subtext:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report detailed a series of incidents in which President Donald Trump took actions to impede the probe that raised questions of whether he committed the crime of obstruction of justice.

Posted by: librul | Apr 18 2019 20:40 utc | 41

jackrabbit #26 nah! it could be achieved regardless of who was elected. Both Clinton and Trump are dutiful servants or slaves of thr deep state. Any half competent propagandist could write their script. A different election result would have simply changed the allegations.

Perhaps some still yearn for Hillary.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 18 2019 20:44 utc | 42

anne jalcard #36

Yep that sounds about right. crowdstrike bear thorough investigation. They must have messed their pants when the VIPS report emerged and Binney led the charge. So they invented a russian server in the USA hohoho. Just like theh invented guccifer2 to cover their tracks.

The only reaxon for this report is to attack russia. The USA state has joined with the Israeli state and the UK state as global belligerents.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 18 2019 20:55 utc | 43

The Mueller report confirms what George Papadopoulos himself has been saying for some time now: that he was being investigated on suspicion of being an agent of Israel, not Russia.

Posted by: 0use4msm | Apr 18 2019 20:57 utc | 44

Michael Tracey has a long interview with George Papadopoulos at Patreon. Don't like Papadopoulos but it's worth listening to.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Apr 18 2019 21:30 utc | 45

“As our investigations into their activity continued, we uncovered additional information allowing us to more confidently associate them with Venezuela.”

A smooth transition into the new war narrative?

Posted by: Archrevenant | Apr 18 2019 22:31 utc | 46

we uncovered additional information allowing us to more confidently associate them with Venezuela.”

A smooth transition into the new war narrative?

Posted by: Archrevenant | Apr 18, 2019 6:31:14 PM | 46

Do you keep your head under a rock? US military is "analyzing all options in respect to Venezuela", draconian sanctions are magnified, China and Russia are castigated for "interference and sabotaging the sanctions", it feels like Venezuela is the Serbia of 2019 (I compare with 1914).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Apr 18 2019 23:16 utc | 47

Anne Jalcard # 36

I think if you read what Binney and VIPS reported, a file transfer with that speed could not have been carried out over the internet. Although it was perfectly consistent with a thumb drive. There is even a pause that one might conclude was the drive filling up, and being replaced by a second ... hilarious, if it weren't so serious.

Posted by: SteveK9 | Apr 19 2019 0:02 utc | 48

Marcy Wheeler continues to assert that Trump’s sarcastic call in July 2016 for Russia to “release the emails” should be taken literally and constitutes “collusion”. Applying literal standards to a milieu populated by influence peddlers who exaggerate and dissimulate professionally is a hallmark of stupidity and a signature of the Russiagate fantasists. This goes with the insistence that anyone with a Russian passport is necessarily a Putin intelligence agent. America is doomed, there is no rational faction holding power or influence to turn to.

Posted by: jayc | Apr 19 2019 0:17 utc | 49

Techno Fog weighs in:

"Mueller's report isn't just proof of Trump's innocence. It's an indictment of the DOJ and the FBI: McCabe, Rosenstein, Yates, et al.

"Re-read the Carter Page FISA applications:

'the Russian governments efforts are being coordinated with @carterwpage'

"That's perjury."

Comment by smoothdavid96 from ensuing thread:

"Why didn’t Mueller arrest Carter Page as an agent of a foreign country as the warrants say he is coordinating with the Russians? Because it’s a lie and if it’s a lie then somebody within the last administration was framing Trump by using Page as the foil."

As I said above, Obama instigated the inquiry to obstruct justice in the case of Hillary Clinton. As was written months ago and again today, Russiagate served to cover up lots of criminal activities by Obama Regime, HRC and DNC, and there're bits and pieces pointing that way within Mueller's report that can't be wished away.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 19 2019 0:32 utc | 50

"Fourth, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. The evidence we obtained about the President's actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." --Mueller Report

_______________________

Paraphrasing...

"While we cannot prove beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt that you committed this murder, we can't offer you exoneration either as that would imply you are innocent. Instead we are undoing centuries of jurisprudence and releasing you back into the community under a permanent cloud of indeterminancy i.e. you are neither guilty nor innocent."

You can pick up your Scarlet Letter in the lobby.

So much for innocent until proven guilty and hello Salem Witch Trials. We know you're a witch. Unfortunately the appropriate test eludes us. Therefore we release you with the understanding that you refrain from mixing potions, which you might never have done but which we think you probably did.

I thought we had a binary system. What's with this new third category, exonerated? TDS has minted an entirely new judicial approach. Yet more evidence that, in the eyes of the Dems, Trump is G-d walking in our midst. He'll be parting water next.

Mueller is such a sad sack. He turned out to be Weissmann's gray-haired b*tch. Maybe the Uranium One samples he carted over to Moscow fried his brain.

Posted by: Full Spectrum Domino | Apr 19 2019 3:01 utc | 51

@51 Full Spectrum Domino,

Well said. I'm hardly a true believer in Trump and I completely loath almost every policy stance he has taken, but how Trump's enemies act (at least the ones that are being put in front of the cameras), is so utterly reprehensible and loathsome that I will never sully myself by supporting them or even give them a free ride by letting all of their bullshit pass without comment. Honestly I don't even know why they are behaving like this, what policies would they enact that Trump hasn't enacted, what is the "Great Vision" that would justify all of the rules, decorum and traditions that the Democrats are trashing with this war on Trump. From what I've seen, the only thing that the Democrats would do differently is have transsexuals in the military and give a bunch of bland platitudes to illegal immigrants (they'd still deport them in record number like Obama did, but they would say nice things about them while deporting them) "Demon-crats" and "Repugnan-icans", just two wings of the same bird!

Posted by: Kadath | Apr 19 2019 3:21 utc | 52

Kadath @52: Honestly I don't even know why they are behaving like this ...

Clearly you haven't been reading the comments here at MoA. You're not the only one (judging by how many have bought into the kayfabe).

Please see comments @24-29. And those are just the latest in a series of comments over months that explain how the 2016 Presidential election was set-up to respond to Russia and settle scores.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 19 2019 3:50 utc | 53

Gotta love the hypocrisy of a country, AmeriKKKa, which has ignored and repudiated the election results of dozens of countries since WWII, holding an inquiry into suspected attempts to influence voter opinions during a US election.
It's also cute that the Official Report on the inquiry has been creatively edited in the interests of (democratic) obscurantism.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 19 2019 4:15 utc | 54

Presumably the Mueller investigation has uncovered some of the campaign-related “Russian” Zionist connection, so some of the truth about the “foreign influence” is coming out anyway.

We must keep in mind that however damning the information about the Kushners that the (((media))) finally discloses, it will be a limited hangout.

Any connections implicating the larger ethnic network and it's control of the overall culture which birthed and fostered the Kushner Crime Syndicate will be downplayed, to the extent they’re revealed at all.

All you need to know to understand why the (((media))), which supposedly hates hates hates Trump, has never made a big deal out of Trump’s connection to the billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Eptstein or Trump's connection to the Kushner crime family is that it’s the (((media))) and they belong to the same tribe as Epstein and Kushner

It's really that simple

Posted by: Thakanat al-Maadi | Apr 19 2019 5:58 utc | 55

The collusion theory originated inside the Obama administration and it was based on evidence provided by US and British intelligence. Almost certainly this evidence was bogus. One would think that providing false evidence in an effort to frame Trump and his campaign would be highly relevant highly relevant to any investigation into the basic charge of collusion. But Mueller did not go there.

It seems pretty clear that Clapper and Brennan were active in pushing those false charges. Perhaps there should now be a Senate investigation into the activities of the FBI and CIA in creating these false charges. The Church committee hearings that were held in the 1970s are a good precedent for such an investigation.
Posted by: ToivoS | Apr 18, 2019 1:47:02 PM | 18

Some days ago Nunes announced his committee had passed criminal referrals to the DoJ requesting investigations of 5 individuals for lying to Congress, plus 3 more open ended conspiracy investigations involving (so far as I remember) FISA abuse and lying to the FISA court, abuse of the intelligence agencies for extra-governmental purposes - that would certainly include Brenner and Clapper, and a global leak investigation. I suppose potentially that could lead to the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate Muellergate (including Mueller himself, certainly one of the criminals). I very much doubt the Deep State would allow it though.

Posted by: BM | Apr 19 2019 6:41 utc | 56

@11....KC and his sunshine band. Keep playing those tunes, brathah.

Posted by: Jose Garcia | Apr 19 2019 6:56 utc | 57

Even phishing is wrong. Evidence in the files showed that it was a local download of the files.

I summarize the Russiagaters "reasoning" in: "We want it to be true. Therefore it is." It makes them impervious to any contradictory evidence.

Posted by: DidierF | Apr 19 2019 7:47 utc | 58

Posted by: Full Spectrum Domino | Apr 18, 2019 11:01:20 PM | 51

This exists in law. You can get cleared or you can not be prosecuted for lack of proof. And - as a lot of people can tell you - you might have to spend the time before the trial in prison though your guilt was not proven.

"Presumption of innocence" means that the state has to prove your guilt, but not you your innocence. The state does not have to prove your innocence either.

Posted by: somebody | Apr 19 2019 8:30 utc | 59

MSNBC, NBC, CNN, and MSM doubling down

Now they are braying, 'Obstruction' and 'attempted collusion', and congratulating themselves for getting the story right and still talking about the FOX News 'echo chamber'. Wow, talk about the blind leading the blind but I already knew these people were dishonest fools.

One talking head even maintains 'collusion' saying that it's an attitude not a crime, and the on the list was every meeting that anyone in Trump's orbit had with a Russian.
So now we are at the point where Jeff Sessions, a standing Senator, isn't allowed to talk with the Russian Ambassador.

If meeting with Russians to get dirt on HRC is collusion then how is it not collusion to pay Russians for dirt on Trump as Steele did to develop his dossier.

Posted by: Christian J Chuba | Apr 19 2019 12:12 utc | 60

@somebody #59:

"Presumption of innocence" means that the state has to prove your guilt, but not you your innocence. The state does not have to prove your innocence either.

No, that’s not what presumption of innocence means. Presumption of innocence means that you are innocent until proven guilty. So, if the state wasn’t able to prove your guilt, you’re innocent. This is an extremely important principle that every civilized society must adhere to, as it apportions punishment (state violence) based on facts, not beliefs.

Posted by: S | Apr 19 2019 12:31 utc | 61

I believe history will say that TDS was one of the worst delusions a country ever experienced, one that affected almost half of its citizenry.

Posted by: morongobill | Apr 19 2019 13:05 utc | 62

@morongo62. So called TDS seems to work 'both' ways. That fact alone puts the number quite higher, say 2/3rds? As with most 'history' there is rarely a consensus.

S@61. Thanks for that, as it makes many things clear.

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Apr 19 2019 13:45 utc | 63

I have been tracking the spin at Reuters.

@41 continues from @5

This morning Reuters front page
has a main photo with a picture of Barr and the
White House in the background. Plastered over the picture
in bold RED caps are the words:
BARR COVERUP

I saved the page for posterity at
Internet Archive Wayback Machine
https://web.archive.org/

Posted by: librul | Apr 19 2019 14:11 utc | 64

"Deep State vs Wikileaks" As many have noted, there's a definite connection between the vendetta against Assange and the Russiagate fiasco/cover-up/hoax. Pepe Escobar prods a few of those connections in what appears as a prelude to a major expose.

At this point, I'm left wondering what an actual non-politicized investigation would have revealed. What I do know is that it would differ fantastically/radically from Mueller's Report with some formerly powerful people indicted for High Crimes. Meanwhile, BigLie Media spins the cover-up while other important events get swept under the rug.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 19 2019 15:31 utc | 65

they want the ''whole'' report now, lol... skip the proof to substantiate the data, but give us all the data regardless..

serious question - are americans brain dead??

Posted by: james | Apr 19 2019 16:06 utc | 66

@66

"are americans brain dead??"

The illness is disguised because it's ubiquitous.

American narcissism has managed to derange even the judicial system: 'I don't like you therefore you're guilty of my dislike. We'll work out the jurisprudential details later.'

It's an internecine narcissistic struggle. People shadow-boxing on performative social media platforms, lending the appearance of authentic social engagement. In fact nothing gets bruised except egos that have come to believe they're the only entity in the room. Despite all the across-the-aisle acrimony, the ego is never really exited. It's a pervasive effing illness. Spooky. This country is SICK.

What's the sanction craze in essence? If you don't conform to who I think I am, I will make myself disappear. America is subtracting itself to death. Petulant self-erasure.

Find it in its germinating stage, Sartre 1947 and the Implacable Machine. Talk about the seed of the poisoned tree.

https://www.thenation.com/article/americans-and-their-myths/

Find it too in 2003, Adam Curtis' purposeful exaggerations. That's a premonition of the derangement apotheosis.

https://fullspectrumdominoes.wordpress.com/2019/04/19/purposeful-exaggerations/

Posted by: Full Spectrum Domino | Apr 19 2019 16:43 utc | 67

Kremlin: "Mueller report ‘poor quality’ & ‘not worth taxpayers’ money’" Hard to tell if Peskov's laughing or is just being matter-of-fact. Peskov does ask a very important question: "What has US taxpayers’ money been spent on?" The answer is: the money went to pay for the covering-up of Hillary Clinton's crimes while Secretary of State, Clinton Foundation Crimes, and crimes by the DNC for illegally manipulating Primary Elections during the 2016 election process, which are the most prominent. Also covered-up is the direct involvement--again--of the CIA, FBI and other executive branch "security services" of meddling with the intent to shape the outcome of a domestic election.

IMO, if House Democrats initiate Impeachment Hearings, Trump will counter by having Barr initiate an investigation into the above cited crimes. That would be some circus!

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 19 2019 17:05 utc | 68

@67 fsd.. thanks... i looked at both of your links.. thanks for that!

i said it was a serious question, but obviously it is not on some important levels too.. americans are no different then other people in many respects, but for whatever reason the culture they are raised in has produced a wide spectrum of positives and negatives.. mostly all i am seeing now are negatives, but that is not to say there aren't positives here too that i might be missing..

in fact, the whole breakdown of the american system could be viewed as an ultimately positive development in so far as it opens the door for a better alternative then what exists at present..

Posted by: james | Apr 19 2019 17:52 utc | 69

Anne Jalcard said:

What does everyone else think?

Well you did ask... I have some sad news.

Of course none of this is against you (unless you happen to be part of VIPS) :)

I had to reacquaint myself and spend more time on this than I really wanted to because I've been having misgivings for a while so I finally gave in.

1. VIPS releases memorandums, not reports, I just wanted to point that out to everybody at the start. VIPS did not do the analysis but supports it.

2. The analysis behind the memorandums are based on analyzing the metadata of copied files, not original files and the DNC server is long gone so there is nothing to compare to and since the breach was not detected when it happened it would likely be without any value even if wasn't.

Metadata can change when one copies or transfers a file or when deliberately manipulated (the very useful "touch" command on Linux is an easy and simple general example of such on that particular operating system).

They go to great length talking about zip and rar archive files and multiple copying steps between different media as well as potentially between operating systems (including Linux) and all sorts of stuff but essentially ignore both that all the timestamps can be manipulated and that all the timestamps could have been changed without them being any the wiser.

They also ignore that it would be prudent for a hacker to modify metadata like timestamps to cover their tracks and give false clues.

That's fucking hopeless.

It really is amazingly crap.

3. The same analyst(s) talk about modifications of the metadata or other data elsewhere, they know it's an option.

The simple fact is that absolutely all of the metadata can be modified in all sorts of ways both for the original files and any copies (together or separately) and thus any of it is very far away from being proof of anything in any way. It simply isn't proof or even an indication of anything and VIPS knows that too.

So none of it makes any sense. Neither side, none of them. Both the "Russia" stuff and also the "file speed" stuff is equally banal, irrelevant, and can't prove anything (and shouldn't even be called "forensic") but people in general don't know or understand any of it and the analysts who did the work as well as Binney and VIPS choose not to point it out in their own work which is rather dishonest (and disappointing) and Mueller etc. also chooses not to point it out in their own allegations nor in the VIPS-endorsed counter as far as I am aware (which is slightly strange but they're clueless so...).

I haven't spoken up about this because I assumed there must be something really weird I didn't know about in whatever details are invoked (there can always be something weird). But no there isn't, it's just complete and utter bullshit from both sides.

Disappointing :(

...

To Full Spectrum Domino:
I like your style with the process crime fish, herring-lurching, and fried Mueller-brain: thanks for the good laughs because I really needed them (and again and again as I rewrote the other part of this post) :)

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Apr 19 2019 19:06 utc | 70

Watch Out for Note-Takers: Trump Won’t Let Roy Cohn Episode Exposed by Don McGahn Slide

"Before Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s report was released, there were rumblings that former and current White House officials were uneasy about the idea of President Donald Trump reading the report and discovering who ratted on him. It’s not clear if former White House counsel Don McGahn could be included among these concerned individuals, but his interactions with the president were of great interest.

On ...one... occasion.... McGahn and Trump got into what we described as a silly argument about lawyers, note-taking, and not measuring up to Roy Cohn.

Trump clearly saw that detail in the report and didn’t let it slide on Thursday:

Watch out for people that take so-called “notes,” Trump said...

McGahn said that a “real lawyer” takes notes and Trump said great lawyers like Roy Cohn never took notes. “I’ve had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn. He did not take notes,” Trump said.

Harvard Law Professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz once described Cohn this way: “Roy Cohn was the quintessential fixer. It wasn’t what he knew; it was who he knew. He knew everybody. He knew every judge; he knew every justice. He knew everybody who had any influence on the judiciary, and you hired him to get access.”

Trump advising the public to watch out for note-takers is, in a way, just more praise of Cohn and more criticism of McGahn

Trump invoked Roy Cohn by name.

The (((media))) has been going out of its way to avoid the topic.

to read full article

https://lawandcrime.com/

and search for:

Watch Out for Note-Takers: Trump Won’t Let Roy Cohn Episode Exposed by Don McGahn Slide

Posted by: Reidun | Apr 19 2019 19:48 utc | 71

"Marcy Wheeler continues to assert that Trump’s sarcastic call in July 2016 for Russia to “release the emails” should be taken literally and constitutes “collusion”."
So does Jackrabbit@6 in this scrambled timeline:
"isn't it curious that Trump himself happened to further Russiagate suspicions and the Wikileaks sting by: hiring Manafort, appealing to Wikileaks and Russia to release emails, frequently praising Putin?"
What is notable about the relentless manner in which commentators, like the duo above, pursue their obsessions long after every scrap of 'evidence' has been exploded and discredited is that this is a society without any conception of justice. It is a given that the loudest liar and the wealthiest briber will prevail.
Emptywheel is a Democratic operative, associated with other operatives living off party patronage, pushing a party position which is clearly nonsensical. And Mueller, in repeating the unsubstantiated allegation that Russia intervened in the 2016 election, is simply reminding us that in the USA, and its imperial system, it is necessary for those wishing to succeed to cast shame aside and insist that black is white and up is down if the patron insists.
The underlying reality is that the Russian government was almost the least interested of any state in the 2016 election: it had nothing to gain from any outcome. Nobody in Moscow had any illusions about Trump's ability to defy the Deep State and they understood exactly what Clinton signified, she at least was a known quantity, whereas all that was known of Trump was that he was an empty vessel who would end up following orders, albeit once he had picked his own master, like a perverted rouee in an SM brothel.
The story here is that, after so much fishing by so many lawyers, in a milieu as utterly corrupt as Washington, nothing could be dug up to justify any charges. But that isn't really surprising either: operators like Mueller rely on intimidation, plea bargains, bent grand juries and complete cooperation from media lynch mobs to earn their reputations as efficient prosecutors. Half of the people they convict are innocent but they suffer no consequences-cf Kamala Harris- from conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 19 2019 20:02 utc | 72

@72 bevin.. i think you might be reading jayc@49's comments wrong... as for your take on jackrabbit - i will let jr speak for himself on this..

i agree with your last paragraph.. thanks..

Posted by: james | Apr 19 2019 22:21 utc | 73

Headline Comparison Photo of the 3 main BigLie print media announcing the Mueller Report's release. Angry Arab comments:

"Wall Street Journal has the more accurate headline. The other two have a hard time discarding their coverage dogmas."

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 19 2019 22:22 utc | 74

Actually bevin thats not what the report says at all. You either are going along to get along here or lying like so many others here. The investigation dug up enough evidence to implicate Trump in crimes and recommends by inference that Congress decide whether to impeach and try Trump... and this because a sitting President cannot be subject to criminal judicial proceedings according to DoJ precedent and policy. The delicate wording is used by Mueller so as to open the door for Congress without biasing further proceedings which Mueller knows will continue or to further enflame public mood. In that regard the first polls Ipsos Reuters indicate hard party line views remain but independents trending at least slightly against Trump. Reuters approval shows Trump at 37% his low point of the year down from 43% after Barr released his whitewashing a few weeks back. My guess is as better understanding of the report grows Trump's numbers will continue to decline among independents.

As Trump is himself quoted in the report, he's fucked.

Posted by: donkeytale | Apr 20 2019 0:13 utc | 75

So we are suppose to care about a report vomited out by a professional liar (See: Mueller Iraq War Crimes for but one example of Mueller's long and sordid career) and we are suppose to believe any of this? Oh and let's see we are also suppose to care that an orange-haired, spray tanned criminal buffoon won the Kabuki (s)election in Potemkin Empire against the insanely corrupted and proven war criminal donkey queen bee? How much tax money was spent to pump out this bilge?

The entire "Russiagate" smokescreen is a perfect example of how propaganda works. Accuse your "enemy" of the very thing you have been doing in plain sight so that when accusations are levied against you it will be harder to make them stick- keep that external enemy front and center so that the real enemy within remains hidden.

Putting aside all the obvious items such as, zero evidence, US elections are already rigged by the US elites before a single vote is cast AND the US has been tampering in just about every countries elections for decades overtly and covertly- and let's consider the most recent attempts BY THE US to ACTUALLY tamper in Russian elections through the ever-handy NED.

There is no other country that intervenes in the political affairs of foreign states so directly, regularly and shamelessly as the United States. American foreign policy is one massive intervention in the politics of other countries, running the gamut from propaganda, destabilization, financing of opposition parties, electoral fraud and coups to military bombardment and occupation.

Professor Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University assembled a database documenting as many as 81 occasions between 1946 and 2000 when Washington interfered in elections in other countries.

There is zero solid evidence that Russia "meddled" in the US elections. It is all speculation and innuendo. Even if one were to blindly assume that the stories were accurate, whatever Russia may or may not have done pales in comparison to the operations of US intelligence agencies all over the world, including within the United States itself, not to mention the billions of dollars spent by the corporate and financial elite to manipulate US elections and determine their outcome.

The claim, moreover, that Russian Twitter and Facebook posts are responsible for social discontent and "disruptions in the democracy" of the United States—one of the most unequal countries in the world—is beyond ludicrous.

Posted by: Allen | Apr 20 2019 1:04 utc | 76

bevin @72

You've completely misread my comment.

I wrote the comment in the context of: 1) ADKC's comment that Trump had to be elected for the new McCarthyism plan to work; and 2) my numerous comments over months that repeatedly explain that the Deep State wanted to elect a MAGA nationalist and to initiate a new McCarthyism.

To be crystal clear: Russiagate and "Russia meddled" are bogus, bullshit memes to initiate a new McCarthyism.

Marcy Wheeler thinks Trump was seriously trying to co-ordinate with Russia when he called for them to release the emails, while I believe he was furthering the McCarthyism to come with the deliberate pretense that Russia/Putin might help him. There's a big difference in these two views.

IMO Trump furthered Russiagate by taking actions that could be construed (whether justifiable or not) as positive toward Russia and/or Putin. IMO Trump likely KNEW that these actions would spark accusations against him. Bogus accusations that would help to drive Russiagate/McCarthism. Because, again, that was the PLAN: elect a nationalist and initiate a new McCarthyism.

I hope my thoughts are now clear. The election was fixed. Russiagate and Mueller's investigation are psyops just as "moderate rebels" and the White Helmets were. Americans are so fixated by the 'Trump Show' that they have been fooled. They never had a choice: Trump brings a new militarism, a new level of greed, a new level of disdain for ordinary people.

Welcome to the rabbithole.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 20 2019 1:21 utc | 77

Allen, the Mueller report is estimated to have cost $17mm.

Otoh. Through Nov 2018 Trumps golf trips have cost tax payers $72mm. Each excursion to Mar a Lago checks in at $3.4 mm a pop.

Posted by: donkeytale | Apr 20 2019 1:21 utc | 78

Allen @76

Exactly. Thank you.

Your comment reinforces mine @6 @26 @77.

I would expect that anyone smart enough and engaged enough to be a MoA reader would have a similar view as Allen @76.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 20 2019 1:27 utc | 79

@76 allen... good post.. many here view it the same way... thanks..

Posted by: james | Apr 20 2019 2:28 utc | 80

JR @ 79

No offence JR but who cares if a relative handful of very smart and engaged but like-minded regular participants believe the in same wrong-headed notions, except as an example of the dangers of groupthink? And why are you working so hard to rally their support anyway?

How do the good smart readers of MoA benefit by presenting/supporting/absorbing endless Trump/GOP spin, Jackrabbit, especially if like you, they profess to be anti-duopolists? This is another rabbit hole in your thinking, bro, which of course could be explained by the remote possibility that you are in fact spinning disinfo because you support the GOP/Trump. Sometimes a rabbit is just a bunny with long ears and a twitchy nose.

For the not so smart and/or not-as-engaged readers at MoA here is a pretty good summary of the Mueller report that actually favours neither of the duopoly parties but does accurately grok the meaning and substance of the Mueller report, unlike Allen, bevin, JR, James and so many other of the "smart enough/engaged" commenters in this and many MoA threads who are very often implicitly or explicitly parroting one of the duopoly party's (GOP) spin on teh Mueller report among many other subjects.

Mueller found plenty of Trump actions that could be considered obstruction but felt that it was not his role to prosecute them. “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president did not obstruct justice, we would so state,” Mueller’s report says. “Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. The evidence we obtained about the President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

The presidential obstruction was clear in its objective and utilized, corruptly, the office’s own powers. If anything, Trump was stymied only by associates who refused to go along. “Our investigation found multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian-interference and obstruction investigations,” Mueller wrote. “The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.”

Posted by: donkeytale | Apr 20 2019 4:04 utc | 81

donkeytale:

who cares

"Managed democracy" is not democracy and opens the door to all manner of corruption, including group think, hubris, personal enrichment, malinvestment, environmental destruction, human rights abuses, etc.

=
Sometimes a rabbit is just a bunny with long ears and a twitchy nose.

Sometimes a donkey is just an ass. Or a dembot, which is much the same thing.

I've described how the Deep State manipulated the 2016 election to achieve specific goals and advocated against voting for duopoly candidates, whereas you and some other commenters keep harping on major party politics and insisting on participating in the duopoly con.

=
Mueller Report Summary

See my comment @77.

Mueller found no collusion and a few instances of possible obstruction which actually was NOT obstructive because subordinates wouldn't take part in anything that might be obstructive. Thus, the collusion investigation was unimpeded and found ... nothing.

The usual suspects want Trump's head. But even if Trump is impeached, he's likely to win the Senate trial. So impeaching just extends the neoMcCarthyst Trump Witch Hunt that much further. More BS to spin the heads of the people away from other manipulations and draw them into to voting for duopoly candidates.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 20 2019 4:54 utc | 82

The problem is this:

Democrats lost an election they should have won by their own stupidity and the wrong candidate.

They then began to analyze what went wrong.

The party establishment who had lost by their own stupidity and the wrong candidate decided they might survive by blaming the Russians.

They are continuing this strategy and no good will come out of it.

This is an example.

I think the biggest takeaway from the report isn’t that Trump is some mastermind criminal, rather that an entire nation was duped by a team of Russian hackers that pried open our religious, racial and political fault lines and set us against one another like fighting chickens. Russian hackers played on the ignorant, self-serving and lazy way we use social media, and the human being’s natural tendency to believe what one wants to believe and try to convince others of the same.

We click “like” without reading, we share articles and infographics without investigating. We have been pawns in Vladimir Putin’s game of chess, and that goes from the average person in US town using social media to the president of the United States of America and his closest team members.

To blame Putin for Facebook is a bit rich. Facebook is made for dividing people into groups served information tailored to their prejudice. A bit like Democrats' identity politics.

Weapons and police brutality should be and are a problem for all US Americans. To divide people on Black Lives Matter (they do matter, of course) is not a Russian idea. To make "All Lives matter" into a racist smear and not a campaign for health insurance, weapons control, prison conditions, immigration, against the death penalty, you name it, is not a Russian idea.

Trump is a shrewd idiot the US financial oligarchy put into the White House to get rid of taxes and regulations. The Democrats don't want to talk about taxes and regulations. They prefer to talk about Russia.

Posted by: somebody | Apr 20 2019 6:27 utc | 83

I have been tracking the spin at Reuters since the release of the Mueller's report.

My previous entry was @64 (which continues @41 and @5)

This morning Reuters front page has a center photo and
under it is this subtext:

Vulnerable House Democrats, mindful of President Trump's continued strength among Republican voters, are using caution in how they respond to the special counsel's report, which detailed Trump's efforts to thwart the investigation into Russian efforts to help him win the White House.

Got that? The take-away from Mueller's report isn't that the MSM/Deep State/Democrats have been making chumps
of the American People for over two years, the take-away is that the Mueller report was about Trump's efforts to thwart the investigation.

I saved the page for posterity at
Internet Archive Wayback Machine
https://web.archive.org/

Posted by: librul | Apr 20 2019 12:55 utc | 84

The primary thing to understand with "The Mueller Report" is that it's intent has nothing to do with "investigating" any election indiscretions or crimes by anyone. If such a political operative as Mueller (or Comey or...) were serious about US election fraud they would start by investigating the towering bribes given to all manner of candidates by Lockheed-Martin and by Goldman Sachs and by....oh wait, those are codified by the system so don't look there.

This is all classic misdirection and it is endless. And the media's role is to keep that movie rolling so the peasants won't look out the window at the true culprits who are destroying their lives every single day- Wall St., The Pentagon and their hired minions in Congress.

The true purpose of the Mueller Report is to vilify Russia and Putin (Putin is no hero but last I checked Russia doesn't have military bases surrounding the US) in order to maintain the pretense that the US needs continued military spending at grotesque levels ($1.3 Trillion per year) that fattens the pockets of Wall St. and sucks the blood from all of us- oh and is destroying the planet BTW.

All of this sturm und drang of the "Mueller Report" is regurgitated Red Scare mongering and the attempt to revive a liberal (Historical Note: The liberals were completely supportive of the original Red Scare) style Dem Party McCarthy-ite paranoia and witch hunt for a "bogeyman" that is of the systems own malicious creation.

So those like donkeytale (do you support the bloodthirsty imperialist Democrats in Kabuki election scams?) support all of the propaganda and outcomes of this misdirection
when they "argue" the absurdities of this theatrical political report.

One cannot overstate the impact of anti-communist propaganda and how it has been programmed into the US "psyche" and how endlessly that anti-communist sentiment has been hammered into the American mind. This hysterical fixation on anti-communist rhetoric is only thinly disguised by this era's witch hunting party du jour- the Democrats- a leading but decaying bourgeois institution in the American political system. All of this reflects the growing neurosis and schizophrenia of the bourgeoisie in the rotting Empire.

Media such as the NYT, WaPo, C-Span, CNN etc. are the official mouthpieces of record for the capitalist state. They set the standard for the "official" narrative. What these media outlets, the democrats and the capitalist system and the ruling class which profit from it and pull the strings, fear above all else is the left, specifically socialism and any independent organizations and movements which educate and rally the working class against the status quo. Above all else they exist to maintain the status quo, and to never, ever stray beyond the boundaries of the capitalist ideology with its liberal twist.

This why they seek to blame foreign meddling and Russian propaganda for the loss of Clinton, and why the Dems have revived McCarthyism to smear anyone critical of the state as a Putin Puppet.

The system is in total crisis mode and they know why, and they don't want me or you to know, nor the rest of the population. And it's not Russia. It's not Trump. It's not fake news. It's the natural result of capitalism, it's the feature of the system. Inequality, poverty, stagnant wages, attacks on living standards, police violence, war, environmental destruction, pollution, etc.

And the left knows this. And Marxism provides the devastating analysis. And socialism provides the only survivable solution.

There is a gigantic need to clean-off the elements of working class culture and to resurrect them. It is as if a huge flood hit the treatment plant and then arrived at where we live. Everything is covered in sewage. Everything has some liberal, middle-class crap encasing it. That cannot stand.

Posted by: Allen | Apr 20 2019 13:03 utc | 85

“It’s hard to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if it isn’t there,” --Dmitry Peskov, Putin spokesman

The dark room wasn't hacked. The black cat was a leaker with a USB. Russia is the specter who, despite being never there, is placed at the scene all crimes. Why? Because it is the MIC profit-center-enemy-of-requisite-scale. No opportunity is wasted by the Straussians to boost its malignity.

However this story's fast becoming the pathos of it all.

'Stop toying with our weak minds because we're liable to saw our own arms off if you tell us to nicely. As the buttercup said to the Zephyr wind: you influence me in directions I would never go myself. What would my parents say? My petals are delicate and highly impressionable. We want to be Imperial Masters of the Universe. But it's hard when you keep whispering sweet nothings in our ears. Stop! That tickles!'

There is nothing exceptionalist about a snowflake. It melts at the slightest touch.

Posted by: Full Spectrum Domino | Apr 20 2019 13:23 utc | 86

somebody @83: The problem is this: Democrats lost an election they should have won ... [then] decided they might survive by blaming the Russians.

The flaw in this line of reasoning is that the effort to blame Russia (e.g. Steele Report and Guccifer 2.0) was started well before the election and throughout the election Hillary was expected to easily win. She was the most qualified candidate in history! LOL.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 20 2019 13:24 utc | 87

Allen @85

Another great comment.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 20 2019 13:25 utc | 88

This Mueller farce looks like turning into a 3-legged (clumsy) race - between the Dems milking the report for vestigial half-truths to be blown out of proportion until Hell freezes over/ the 12th of Never, and Justice Dept prosecutors looking for scalps IF they find traces of fabrication in 'evidence' upon which Mueller relied.
Some members of Pat Lang's (SST) committee of correspondents sound quite confident that the heads of some of Mueller's informants/ co-conspirators will roll.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 20 2019 13:27 utc | 89

Russiagate or not, even your remarks sustain a conclusion that Trump's own words and tweets were attempts to obstruct justice. That he was legally not culpable by reason of personal and staff incompetence seems like justification for impeachment. Do we really want a lying, incompetent boob running our country? I do not.

Posted by: Tomonthebeach | Apr 20 2019 13:42 utc | 90

thanks everyone, for the comments since i last posted yesterday..

@90 tomonthebeach... do you really want to be distracted with all this bullshit 24/7 is a better question... how's it going demonizing a foreign country 24/7 too? ethnocentric much?? yeah - trump is a narcissist, but at this point he appears to be running a country of narcissists who have nothing better to do then navel gaze endlessly, while wall st. rips it off and the msm tells it how evil russia and putin are... trump is the least of your troubles at this point... as i have said before - dealing with the symptoms instead of the cause isn't the answer... get rid of trump, and there will be some other bozo who is equally as bad.. this is what the usa and western world have come down to 2019..

Posted by: james | Apr 20 2019 15:09 utc | 91

This is a comprehensive analysis of the Mueller Report from the well-respected lawfare blog. What Mueller Found on Russia and on Obstruction: A First Analysis

Lawfare's analysis accepts much of what Mueller says as truthful and accurate. We at MoA know better.

1. Trump's interactions with Russia are deemed suspicious whereas even greater interactions with allies and frenemies like Israel are not.

2. Many of the Russian "influence operations" that Mueller details are minor (a few facebook ads) or ordinary course of business (meeting with Russian ambassador).

3. Lawfare fails to note the problems raised with regard to supposed "Russian hacking" (no reliable connection to Russia) and the failure of the Mueller team to interview Assange and other knowledgeable sources.

4. The clear exonerations (there are many) are the strongest aspect of the Mueller Report and demonstrate that Russiagate concerns were exaggerated and hyped by media.

5. Neither "Steele" or "FISA" can be found in this summary, probably because they are not in the Mueller Report itself (which I haven't read in detail). Using the Steele dossier to get a FISA warrant to fish for "Russian influence" should be prosecuted - Mueller could've made such a recommendation, but didn't.

6. There are surprisingly few actors in this drama. This is important because it is entirely possible (as I've proposed numerous times) that the new McCarthyism is a Deep-State psyop as part of a response to the Russia-China Alliance that threatens AZ Empire's NWO.

The meeting at Trump tower seem clearly to have been a set-up.

Mueller determined that Manafort had Russian ties
Note: whether Manafort had/has Russian ties or not, his work in Ukraine is easily spun. And that makes Trump's elevation of Manafort to campaign manager very strange.

- a Presidential candidate can legitimately want improved relations with another country;

- Trump's actions after taking office have not unduly benefited Russia. In fact, Trump's charm offensive has been accompanied by actions that cause Russia much consternation and concern.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 20 2019 15:32 utc | 92

Allen @ 85

The system is in total crisis mode and they know why, and they don't want me or you to know, nor the rest of the population. And it's not Russia. It's not Trump. It's not fake news. It's the natural result of capitalism, it's the feature of the system. Inequality, poverty, stagnant wages, attacks on living standards, police violence, war, environmental destruction, pollution, etc.

There is a gigantic need to clean-off the elements of working class culture and to resurrect them. It is as if a huge flood hit the treatment plant and then arrived at where we live. Everything is covered in sewage. Everything has some liberal, middle-class crap encasing it. That cannot stand.

This is accurate analysis more or less and a nice rant of the same nothingburger preached practically nonstop forever. The net result of all this "valuable discussion" is: the US has slid hard right and by exhibiting your smug attitude you are actively promoting with your words the further consolidation of the white working class under the fascist false flag of the GOP and Trump. You are pushing their buttons as hard as say, Hillary does, leading to their resentment of leftists, pushing them to be trickfucked over and over again by this endless Amrikkkan game of phony racial identity politics. This is the history of white fright, created first under slavery, organised under Jim Crow and souther Democrats, Republikkkanised under Nixon, given a smiley face by Reagan, and now unleashed into glorious full throated racial resentment by Trump. Get the direction here, Allen? Not improving one bit under your "prescient" analysis.

Your is far from a great comment, imho. It is simply more of the same which leads us to the very point we find ourselves wrt class base politics of the left. On the outside looking in with nothing to offer. You are saying here the working class is covered in shit and implying only the wise all knowing Marxists (hahaha) or the jackrabbits could ever help them clean up and resurrect themselves from the shit pile created by capitalism.

Except, you illogically then say Trump is besides the point and Russia is beside the point? No, they are at least just as much the point as the limousine liberals you blame. Lol. Trump is a capitalist oligarch dude promoting inequality to ever greater heights. So are the Russian oligarchs bro. They're part of the same wealthy, conniving oligarchy of the global ruling class who screw poor people over for breakfast, lunch and dinner without giving it a second thought.

Posted by: donkeytale | Apr 20 2019 15:44 utc | 93

Here is the VIPS memo on the matter. A must read from a technical pov..

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/04/16/vips-fault-mueller-probe-criticize-refusal-to-interview-assange/

Posted by: Lozion | Apr 20 2019 15:53 utc | 94

@85 your passionate observation that the Mueller Report is a purposeful 'distraction' is without a doubt accurate based on what I've been witnessing since 2016. And I'd add there are more of us who share this viewpoint than don't.

But I don't share your red scare sentiments, that is Putin being the Darth Vader in all of this ugly mess. Putin is a foil, a distraction himself. Putin has earned my respect for his prowess, his long-game, his patience, but that does not parlay into trusting him in any way. He's a significant player in much of this given his friendly relationships with Hillary and Obama . Yes, I said it. It is these two who employed their neoliberal policies to sell off America's natural resource assets to Russia to their own financial benefit. It was their policy to bottle up and choke off U.S. oil production. It was their policy to continue moving U.S. assets offshore to the benefit of too big to fail corporations not to mention their unstated policy to hold no banker accountable following the 2008 implosion. Instead they levied huge fines and moved the cash through the DOJ to finance NGOs whose mission was to carry out his vision of 'Change you can believe in.'

This is what the Mueller Reports purpose truly is, in my opinion, that is to run out the clock and to distract resources away from their deceitful pilfering of U.S. assets.

And jackrabbit, I so appreciate your passionate belief that the deep state chose Trump over Hillary, but I gotta say that that's a load of bunk. In suggesting this line of thinking you ignore the cold anger conservatives have toward congress, Obama and especially Hillary. It's that cold anger that motivated them in 2016 and will continue to move them to Trump.

Are U.S. elections rigged? Of course they are. Could the deep state rig such an election win for Trump? Of course they could. But they didn't. Mr. Trump is no friend of the intelligence underground nor the neoliberal/neocon political class that's taken root throughout the DC area.

Mr. Trump ingratiated himself into the conservative movement years before 2016. He's been speaking their language for years, that is the conservatives were sickened by the loss of meaningful jobs in small town America, you know the ones that put food on the table and roofs over their heads. The conservatives were sickened by no one ever being held accountable for the mortgage debacle, Fast and Furious gunrunning, the growing immigration challenges, Benghazi and the untold lies following that tragedy along with OBL Seal Team's 6 chopper being shot down in the mountains of Afghanistan. The conservatives loathed the fact Hillary Clinton was not held accountable for untold violations around her bathroom server/the Weiner laptop and the 30k missing wedding/yoga emails. The conservatives witnessed whistleblowers like Drake, Sterling, Rosen, Attkisson, Kirakou and Snowden sacrificing much to alert all of us of the intrusive Turn Key surveillance state erected on sterioids following 9/11 while the dynastic political hacks who did much, much worse walked free. Lastly, the conservatives themselves lost one of their own in a very odd way, Andrew Brietbart. It was Brietbart who was giving energy to the conservative Tea Party movement, you know the movement that Obama not only spied on but ordered the IRS to drag out or outright refused to give them non profit status altogether.

Eight years of 'change you can believe in' galvanized the conservatives who said ENOUGH!

Trump didn't need help from a bunch of nobody's who slither in darkness to win in 2016. The man achieved this goal on his own. He earned it and to suggest otherwise does a disservice to 60+ million voters who are fully committed to rejecting neolib/neocon crap, along with the UniParty, to the proverbial curb.

Posted by: h | Apr 20 2019 15:58 utc | 95

Contrary to fighting Trump's terrible policies, the Dems collude with them. There are always enough Dem votes in Congress to pass whatever horrific legislation Trump wants. NoOne at 2.

The whole gasp* Russia-Russia-Russia alarmist narrative was set up and invented (Russia did not mount any kind of campaign to influence the US elections, imho) to cover up the demise or collapse of the Dem. Party — or better: some faction of the fake duopoly, which was set up to distill, corral and manage public opinion, thru trivial oppositions and divided opinions on social issues, such as gay marriage. Then, had to go into overdrive, by lashing out without thinking.

Endless alarms about BS contrived or misleading ‘news’ (the 4th estate has hitched itself up giving up independence) about an outside ENEMY - Russia being the obvious pick, see bad history, plus the certainty it would not riposte - only go so far.

One also needs an internal Enemy! Trump was elected in part because he did designate one in some fashion - immigrants, illegals, drug runners, rapists on the Mex border, etc. Killary tried to demonise US voters (deplorables, alt-right) - a staggeringly stupid arrogant mistake.

In 2016, it was evident that the ‘old’ Establishment, Dems and Reps, were sinking, collapsing. The two putative ‘winning’ candidates in 2016, Trump and Sanders, were not members of either party, became so only to run, and while the Reps did not / could not keep the maverick out, the Dems did, and thus lost.

The next election, as nothing much has changed, looks to be set in a similar mold.

Which means that Dems will prefer a Trump win (as a win from their camp would mean championing Sanders, didn’t do it before, won’t now), and Reps would also prefer that, as they have nothing to propose, and Trump can at least be counted on to block some ‘sh*t’ policies, lower taxes, keep the arms industry going, love Isra-hell, be fooled about this or that .. und so weiter.

The rest is clumsy theatre. The plethora of Dem Prez. candidates is a reality-TV-show, similar to sports-n-sex whoopee on Desert Islands, with a prize of 10K!

The cratering of old-time Pol. Parties is more striking in GB, where both Labour and the Tories are split over the Brexit issue, be it via their elected officals, MPs, othr figures, or the voters….Neither Party can deal with it in a consensual way, so they just back off…leading to paralysis.

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 20 2019 16:16 utc | 96

Noirette @96:

In 2016, it was evident that the ‘old’ Establishment, Dems and Reps, were sinking, collapsing. The two putative ‘winning’ candidates in 2016, Trump and Sanders, were not members of either party, became so only to run, and while the Reps did not / could not keep the maverick out, the Dems did, and thus lost.

This narrative FAILS when you consider that Obama was also considered to be a populist outsider. But he was actually a faux populist deceiver that served establishment interests.

Trump has also proven to be a faux populist. I call him "the Republican Obama".

See my recent comment here that describes why Sanders is a sheepdog (and thus also a tool of the establishment).

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 20 2019 16:42 utc | 97

@ Allen | Apr 20, 2019 9:03:33 AM | 85

VERY well said!

Posted by: AntiSpin | Apr 20 2019 18:04 utc | 98

@ Posted by: Tomonthebeach | Apr 20, 2019 9:42:06 AM | 90

How can one "obstruct justice" when the underlying crime doesn't exist? What justice?

Posted by: Ash | Apr 20 2019 18:31 utc | 99

@ #6 JackRabbit:

https://soundcloud.com/jarvisfunkensteinmusic/circes-playground/

Posted by: Shyaku | Apr 20 2019 21:40 utc | 100