Utterly absurt, ridiculous, and straight-up gaslighting

The big report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been delivered to the Justice Department. All we know about it at the moment is the four page summary by Attorney General Robert Barr. Since he’s known as a party loyalist there is a lot of skepticism of his summary. But that’s all we have unless and until Democrats can get their hands on the full report.

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville has some thoughts.

The collusion between the nasty guy and Russia has been out in the open since the nasty guy’s campaign began and is still right out there.

Trump has been so brazen that the people charged with holding him accountable, including the press, keep looking *past* what he says and does in public, searching for "evidence" of what is already evident. They've convinced themselves that a president can't be a brazen traitor.

In the same way people told us to wait for the Muller Report (it will save us!) the chant has become, “Wait for SDNY!” That’s the Court of the Southern District of New York, prosecutors from which are looking into the nasty guy’s finances.

McEwan isn’t interested in waiting. It seems all the Mueller Report did was allow the GOP to consolidate power. Besides, SDNY had a few decades to act before the nasty guy became president and did nothing.

McEwan has said many times over the last two years she doubts the Mueller investigation would get us very far. The case lacked urgency (a treason case shouldn’t take two years). The vice nasty guy knew (he was the head of the transition), yet he was never considered a person of interest. Just two flags.

About the full report:

That Mueller has reportedly found no evidence of collusion is utterly absurd. Any suggestion to the contrary is straight-up gaslighting. It's fundamentally ridiculous to come to the conclusion that there's no evidence of Trump and members of his circle colluding with Russia.

And it's only slightly less ludicrous to find there isn't actionable evidence that Trump committed obstruction. But here we are.

McEwan isn’t telling she called it two years ago to do a victory lap. She is warning us again so people don’t put their hopes in some other savior (like SDNY) while shouting down the women who have been right all along.

On to some thoughts by Sarah Kendzior. She has studied authoritarian regimes. These thoughts are from a post on Daily Kos.
From what she wrote in January – two months ago:

I’m trying to figure out why those with power haven’t done anything to at least slow autocratic consolidation. I don’t mean obviously complicit GOP actors. I mean Mueller, the FBI or anyone with the capacity to indict. A forceful legal solution was always the only one that would work. It’s a transnational crime syndicate acting as a government. There’s no shame or norms or checks or balances involved here. There never was. And they refused to do it. I keep looking at all these leaders and resourceful people and wondering what they’re thinking, because this is heading to a familiar and VERY bad ending.

When the issue is treason one must act fast.

Because of course they’re going to rewrite the law, pack the courts, and purge you, and censor evidence. This is so basic that I can’t believe they don’t grasp it.

Because it’s so basic, I now think the Mueller probe is essentially fake. It’s designed to get rid of a few inconvenient people and prosecute those who the US can’t really touch (i.e. Russians). It’s not a real investigation and I’m not sure ever was. Barr is there to suppress it. The tactic was to run out the clock and consolidate power as Mueller plods along. That way the public has the illusion of a probe and possible justice, but there was never going to be any. He was never going to do anything that mattered for national security, like indict Kushner much less Trump.

Back to now Kendzior was asked if she finds peace in being so consistently right:

No, it sucks to be right. I want justice, people's suffering to end, freedom and rights for all, and for the American public to quit getting played like a bunch of passive suckers. Maybe after this latest fiasco I'll finally get that last one.

In a Twitter thread Walter Shaub reminds us of all the other things the nasty guy has done that would have gotten a Democrat president impeached. Campaign finance violations, inaugural committee accepting foreign donations, firing FBI director and AG for allowing him to be investigated, asking the DOJ to block the AT&T – Time Warner merger as revenge against CNN, Jared Kushner illegally working around email protocols – the same thing for which the nasty guy has his followers chant “Lock her up!”, nepotism, conflicts of interest, monetizing the presidency, and a lot more.

Yeah, the nasty guy declares himself to be totally exonerated (which is not what Barr’s summary said). But he is being told there will be no consequences for his crimes. He is emboldened. He started talking about revenge. McEwan offfers a few details.

He is preparing to call for organizations to fire members of the media and former government officials who he believes made false accusations about him.

He has circulated talking points to surrogates, sent a memo to TV producers listing his critics who should not appear as guests on various shows. That list includes Reps Adam Schiff, Jerrold Nadler, and Eric Salwell, the heads of various House committees who are starting to investigate him.

And he is turning the whole thing on its head. White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders:

They literally accused the President of the United States of being an agent for a foreign government. That's equivalent to treason. That’s punishable by death in this country.

I gasped when I read that for the sheer chutzpah (from an administration known for its chutzpah). Sorry, Sarah, accusing the president is not treason. Even so, we see where this is heading.