July 27, 2018

In The Nation, critique of "The Elite Fixation With Russiagate."

By Aaron Maté:
From the outset, Russiagate proponents have exhibited a blind faith in the unverified claims of US government officials and other sources, most of them unnamed....

The record of US intelligence, replete with lies and errors, underscores the need for caution. Mueller was a player in one of this century’s most disastrous follies when, in congressional testimony, he endorsed claims about Iraqi WMDs and warned that Saddam Hussein “may supply” chemical and biological material to “terrorists.” That does not mean Mueller perjured himself back then, or that he is concocting a false case now. It just means that government officials can make mistakes based on faulty information.

Suppose, however, that all of the claims about Russian meddling turn out to be true. Hacking e-mails and voter databases is certainly a crime, and seeking to influence another country’s election can never be justified. But the procession of elite voices falling over themselves to declare that stealing e-mails and running juvenile social-media ads amount to an “attack,” even an “act of war,” are escalating a panic when a sober assessment is what is most needed....

With the attendant suspicion of Trump’s potential subordination to Putin, it is obscuring the reality in front of us... All seemed to overlook what Trump actually did: openly criticize Russia’s prized Nord Stream 2 gas project with Germany and badger NATO members to increase military spending....

Amid fervent speculation that Trump may be a Kremlin asset, Israel’s brazen (and actually documented) foreign meddling barely registers....

98 comments:

wild chicken said...

Oh, this must be about Max Boot.

rehajm said...

...and seeking to influence another country’s election can never be justified.

Try telling that to the United States.

rhhardin said...

Hacking e-mails and voter databases is certainly a crime, and seeking to influence another country’s election can never be justified.

It's not a crime if done from offshore, unless the offshore country makes it illegal under their own law.

JAORE said...

And then we conflate Russian ineffective meddling with CHANGED THE OUTCOME (President Obama nixed that idea, but it did not stay dead) careening wildly into President Trump is a Putin puppet!

rhhardin said...

They have trouble identifying cognitive dissonance symptoms. Diagnosis is a lit crit exercise, so ought to be right up their allwy.

Big Mike said...

and seeking to influence another country’s election can never be justified.

So would it be okay for Benjamin Netanyahu‘s Government to indict Barack Obama? The meddling in Israel’s last election was open and blatant?

Earnest Prole said...

All true, though it's tough to give The Nation credit for being right since they've been apologizing for Russians nonstop for the past hundred years.

DanTheMan said...

>>speculation that Trump may be a Kremlin asset

Is there any sane person that believes this? Trump, a Russian agent?
Not just helped by Russia, or supported by Russia, but an actual Russian operative?

We live in crazy times.

Yancey Ward said...

If only Trump and his campaign had hired an ex-MI6 British Agent to dig up the dirt on Clinton from the Russians, all would have been perfectly nice and legal.

Bay Area Guy said...

Putin and the Russians did not hack the election -- they allegedly hacked the Democrat National Committee and, possibly, John "Password" Podesta e-mails.

There's an important distinction.

President Obama explained it clearly in October 2016, before the results.

Big Mike said...

And keep in mind that the target audience for this article are people who are “elite” only in their own minds.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Sounds like they're trying to talk the hysterics on the left down from the ledge. So Mueller's probe is going nowhere and internal polling is telling them that this stuff isn't selling in the fly over country.

I think it was Keith Ellison who said that if you're not opposing "the evil" then you're "complicit in the evil." So according to Keith if you voted for Trump you are either evil or a dupe. The Democrat party is still in the "purge the wrong thinker" phase of grief.

Big Mike said...

Bay Area Guy is quite right. Publicizing the way Wasserman-Schultz and crew rigged the nomination process is merely good investigative journalism, of the sort that the media stopped doing years ago, to their shame.

Gahrie said...

Is there any sane person that believes this? Trump, a Russian agent?
Not just helped by Russia, or supported by Russia, but an actual Russian operative?


The same people who believe that Hiss and the Rosenbergs weren't.

cubanbob said...

The FBI is in charge of counter intelligence. Mueller was the director of the FBI when Hillary was exposing classified information to virtually all of the world's intelligence services. When did Mueller advise then president Obama about this unbelievable breach of national security? And why hasn't Mueller recused himself from his obvious conflict of interest?

Ron Winkleheimer said...

It's not a crime if done from offshore, unless the offshore country makes it illegal under their own law.

Just because you aren't present in a country doesn't mean that what you are doing isn't illegal in that country. For instance, executives from DeBeers can't visit the US because according to US Law they are running an illegal diamond cartel.

Francisco D said...

"So would it be okay for Benjamin Netanyahu‘s Government to indict Barack Obama? The meddling in Israel’s last election was open and blatant?"

Bill Clinton sent Carville and another campaign consultant to openly work against (If I recall correctly) Netanyahu's election. There was not a lot of protest at that time.

Wince said...

I may have to renew my subscription to The Nation, which lapsed around my sophomore year of college in the 1980s.

Fernandinande said...

The GOP hacked Sony and made copies of unreleased Sony films.

That's a more important story than Russian Bernie Bro because more people watch Sony movies than vote in elections.

Michael The Magnificent said...

I'm so old I remember when lefties were sure GWB declared a war on terrorism so his oil buddies could build an oil pipeline through Afghanistan, and also steal Iraq's oil.

tcrosse said...

The Russian Collusion thing is no longer needed to explain how the wonderfullest, smartest, most qualified person ever to run for President lost to that moron Trump. The woman herself has compiled a long list of other factors to explain her defeat. Incidentally, none them are named Hillary.

Humperdink said...

"Under one of the most dangerous administrations in US history, that willful and heedless diversion may be the far most serious national-security crisis we face."

The writer is finally waking to the fact that with complete fixation of the commie-pinko lefties on Russiagate, Trump is steamrolling along.

Bay Area Guy said...

The Nation is making sense?

Cats and dogs living together!

Darrell said...

The Elite don't believe the "Russia!!11!!!" lie for one second. You go to war with the lie you have. Unfortunately for them, the lie was made up by idiots.

stevew said...

Couple this Nation piece with this headline from the NYT: Mueller examining Trump's Tweets in Wide Ranging Obstruction Inquiry. It would seem some on the Left - self-identified Elites - are coming to understand that there was no collusion or election fraud crime committed by Trump, and that Mueller has strayed far from the inquiry he was hired to conduct.

-sw

M Jordan said...

Putin was trying to MRGA before Trump came down the escalator. That’s truly what he’s all about. He’s not an evil madman, he’s a shrewd tsar. He’s Peter the Great II. Trump gets that and sees him as a tremendous competitor. I’m with Trump. Deal with Putin. Give him some “wins” while making the big deal.

Henry said...

Instead of focusing on policy, the press has engaged in commentary more appropriate for an ice-skating performance.

That's a fun analogy. Just think of Trump as Tonya Harding.

Rick said...

a sober assessment is what is most needed....

This is misleading. "Sober' implies a temporary condition which can be remedied. "Adult" would be better since it recognizes hat reality is simply beyond their ability.

tcrosse said...

Just think of Trump as Tonya Harding.

I'm starting to think of him as Jackie Chan.

Big Mike said...

It's not a crime if done from offshore

Except that the DNC Emails were not downloaded to an offshore IP address. Just under two gigabytes of data was downloaded from DNC in 87 seconds. This transfer rate is vastly too high for a download across the Internet, but consistent with being downloaded onto a USB thumb drive. What we don’t know is who had that thumb drive. Seth Rich (you just shot someone in a robbery gone bad and you run off without grabbing his wallet?) is a possibility, but my money is on the Awan brothers.

Big Mike said...

Almost forgot — The Nation itself publicized the analysis I just alluded to sometime last August IIRC.

RB Glennie said...

Comports to my own belief that the left-wing, the classical-socialist left or whatever you wish to call them, are not very hot on this `Russian collusion' BS. They see it for what it is, a new McCarthyite witchhunt.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

The elite always hated the idea of Trump winning, and tried for a long time to laugh it off. The better he did, the angrier they got--and of course they got angry at the large number of people who voted for him. How did this come to converge so neatly with anti-Russia hysteria? To some extent the mixture was brewed up by senior people at CIA, Justice, and FBI. But I think for progressives, Putin may be the worst kind of dictator. No one really thinks he's particularly religious--although insofar as he's trying to combine the greatness of the Soviet Union with that of the old Tsars, the Orthodox Church comes into it somehow. And he's not on the left, he's on the right. So none of the fashionable excuses for dictators, that might apply to Cuba, China, even Iran, apply to him. Everyone who's smart and secular is supposed to support progressive politics.

JohnAnnArbor said...

The Russians must be laughing themselves silly about all this. One major long-term (since early Soviet days) goal is to sow discord in the West of all kinds. Here, they managed with very little effort on their part, and it's been given life way beyond any sense of reality or common sense because it's in the interest of a political faction here to do so.

traditionalguy said...

Trump is Abraham Lincoln. He did not start the CIA shadow government's War on a duly elected President of the USA, but he is finishing it.

Comanche Voter said...

One of the most dangerous admnistrations in history? Dangerous to what? The existing order? Well maybe. OTOH I'd give props to Obama in that regard for weaponizing the IRS, ruling by executive fiat when he couldn't get something through Congress, hiring Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch as Attorney Generals. Heck, I may as well throw in hiring that poisonous little runt John Brennan as one of his failings. Most of what Trump has done domestically is clearing off the debris left by the Obama administration.

Now as for all this howling about "the Russkis did it"---that is the bitter little poison pill left behind by a sociopath named Hillary. Compared to Nixon who gracefully conceded after Papa Joe Kennedy had caused half the graveyards in Illinois to walk to the polls and vote early and often, Gore and Hillary don't come off well. Nixon cared more for the country and its "deplorables" than those two twits combined. I'm not saying that drunken Hillary is a sociopath generally--but she sure as heck is one politically. And Gore couldn't find his Second Chakra with both hands and some help from a masseuse.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Russia, Israel, Ukraine, Mexico...lots of nations tried in various ways to influence the 2016 Presidential election.
Only one of those has any utility in undermining the legitimacy of Trump's election, though, and in what can only be a crazy coincidence it's that one alone that the Media has decided is important.
What could explain it?

Carol said...

If they lose this war, the Russia hoax will go into the history books to de-legitimize Trump's presidency for future readers. So they'll get him that way.

I love history but I guess that's how it's always worked.

gilbar said...

Earnest Prole said... All true, though it's tough to give The Nation credit for being right since they've been apologizing for Russians nonstop for the past hundred years.
That was the 1st thing that went through my mind.

Carol said...

And definitely if they win I should say.

gilbar said...

Russia, Israel, Ukraine, Mexico...lots of nations tried in various ways to influence the 2016 Presidential election.
Only one of those has any utility in undermining the legitimacy of Trump's election, though, and in what can only be a crazy coincidence it's that one alone that the Media has decided is important. What could explain it?

Sounds like a question for a LLR that just happens to parrot ALL the DNC talking points?
Do we know anyone like that? Maybe that person could explain it to us?

Mike Sylwester said...

A person calling himself Imperator Rex, reports via Twitter that on May 10, 2016, Lisa Page texted to Peter Strzok that Andy McCabe had asked for a "status update" about the "Midyear Exam" investigation of Hillaray Clinton's e-mail server. McCabe wanted the status update because of an inquiry from Robert "Bob" Anderson.

Previously, Anderson had worked as a high-ranking official in the FBI, but he had retired from the FBI in January 2016. Anderson no longer had a right to a status update about any FBI business in May 2016.

Six days after Page's text about Anderson's inquiry, "Crazy Comey the Leaker" publicly exonerated Clinton.

According to the Strzok-Page texts, Strzok sent an e-mail to Anderson on October 25, 2016, which was three days before Comey re-opened the MidYear Exam investigation. Strzok should not have been giving any status update to Anderson.

On November 3 (five days before the election), Strzok texted that he was canceling a meeting with Anderson.

Imperator Rex suggests compellingly that Anderson was a cut-out to forward status updates from Strzok to Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller, who was retired from the FBI. While Mueller had been FBI Director, Anderson had been his Deputy Assistant Director of Counter-Intelligence.

Leland said...

seeking to influence another country’s election can never be justified.

Tell that to NBC: "President Barack Obama Endorses Emmanuel Macron For French President: 'Vive La France' "

buwaya said...

The DNC is not the same building or IT establishment (WAN, etc.) as the offices of Congress where the Awans worked. But who knows. There are plenty of people in this thing, with lots of contacts.

Bruce Hayden said...

"Except that the DNC Emails were not downloaded to an offshore IP address. Just under two gigabytes of data was downloaded from DNC in 87 seconds. This transfer rate is vastly too high for a download across the Internet, but consistent with being downloaded onto a USB thumb drive. What we don’t know is who had that thumb drive. Seth Rich (you just shot someone in a robbery gone bad and you run off without grabbing his wallet?) is a possibility, but my money is on the Awan brothers."

But. But. But, CIA Director Brennan said it was the Russians. And his buddies DNI Clapper and FBI Director Comey backed him up. And if you can't trust the leaders of your intelligence community, who can you trust?

FullMoon said...

The Russians must be laughing themselves silly about all this. One major long-term (since early Soviet days) goal is to sow discord in the West of all kinds. Here, they managed with very little effort on their part, and it's been given life way beyond any sense of reality or common sense because it's in the interest of a political faction here to do so.

The Russian investment in members of the MSM is there most successful operation. MSM keeps the hysteria alive by appealing to most vulnerable. Witness pussy hat brigade, attacks on Trump supporters intensifying. Many on the left are not bad people, just simple minded.

Seeing Red said...

I sense an election coming.

Mark Jones said...

From Stargate: SG-1 back in the 90s or early 2000s:

General Hammond: "The United States is not in the habit of meddling in the affairs of other nations."
Col. O'Neill & Captain Carter exchange a look
O'Neill: "Since when, sir?"

Yeah. "meddling in other nations' affairs" is like spying--illegal when they do it to us, but par for the course when we do it to them.

Dude1394 said...

The nation more sane than the democrat cnn/washpost/msnbc/nytimes. These really are the end times.

Sad isn't it, when a site like the Nation has more integrity. Makes me want to take another look at communism.

buwaya said...

Off topic - Ronan Farrow is now going after Leslie Moonves, Chairman of CBS, for Weinsteinisms.

Moonves is a hired hand (has worked for Sumner Redstone for 20+ years) and not an idependent actor like Weinstein, but still, this is an order of magnitude higher up the media chain.

Sumner Redstone himself may not be the master of his domain, though he remains owner of CBS and Viacom. Someone bailed him out of debt a decade ago. And he is extremely old and seems to be suffering from dementia. Who is acting for him?

Also, if one is to credit Q, one has to wonder who Ronan Farrow is acting for. In everything like this there is a private understory. Weinstein, and this, and many other of the #metoo have been extremely political.

There seem to be a series of shots being fired over the bows of the MSM.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Maybe Inga can come by and explain why progressives hated the CIA up until 2017, distrusted the FBI until they went political and absolutely loved Russia during Obama's eight years, but have the equal and opposite opinions and values today. How does one completely change opinion based on which way the (political) wind blows? As a follow up, how does it feel to absolutely own the ideals of the John Birch Society?

Original Mike said...

”Six days after Page's text about Anderson's inquiry, "Crazy Comey the Leaker" publicly exonerated Clinton.”

That date doesn’t seem right, Mike Sylwester.

buwaya said...

The Nation is not the same, quite, as being owned by the owners of the MSM.
The Nation is a hobby journal belonging to Katrina vanden Heuvel.

She is an heiress of the founder of the predecessor of this -

NBC Universal

That is, whats now the conglomerate of NBC and Universal Pictures, now owned by Comcast.
I think vanden Heuvel simply clips coupons, but that gives her independence.
The Nation aligns with fashionable leftism and always has, but is not part of the MSM machine.

Seeing Red said...

She’s been an entitled limo liberal forever.

You notice most of the loudmouths don’t give up the trust fund.

Alex said...

It's all they've got. The economy is doing so well, Trump just kicked EU's ass on trade, he's bringing peace to the Korean peninsula and so on. All they've got is the hope & prayer that they've got some Mueller dirt!

I know I'm not tired of winning, are you?

MAGA!

Michael K said...

When you've lost The Nation...

my money is on the Awan brothers.

Could be but I would still like to find out what happened to that GW resident who was kicked out of ICU when Rich, still alive and maybe talking, was admitted.

rcocean said...

People are being naive.

The whole point of the Mueller investigation was to give him a blank check to rummage around in Trump's affairs, collect tons of data on his campaign and associates, and hope they can find Something, anything, to hang him with.

And lookee, somehow "Russia Collusion" has ended up with a Federal Attorney getting a hold of Trump's privileged communications with his personal lawyer, and "a hundred" Cohen-Trump tapes.

Do you really think that all these Trump haters on Mueller's staff aren't passing on every little useful tidbit to their DNC friends? Oh wait, that's against some law or its "Unethical" so of course not. *wink*wink*

rcocean said...

There's NEVER been one good reason for Mueller to have gotten a blank Check for a mission statement. Rosenstein could have easily, gave him an extremely narrow one that only focused on Russian Collusion and dealt with counter-intelligence.

Instead, he did the opposite, and has exercised zero oversight.

When is Trump going to fire Rosenstein? And I assume Sessions, since Sleepy Jeff backs up his DAG at every opportunity.

gadfly said...

Aaron Maté may well be the host/producer for The Real News but he cannot differentiate between real and imagined. If he had written just one paragraph and stopped, I would have approved but this hit piece on the Mueller investigation is pathetic. Consider just this one paragraph:

The record of US intelligence, replete with lies and errors, underscores the need for caution. Mueller was a player in one of this century’s most disastrous follies when, in congressional testimony, he endorsed claims about Iraqi WMDs and warned that Saddam Hussein “may supply” chemical and biological material to “terrorists.” That does not mean Mueller perjured himself back then, or that he is concocting a false case now. It just means that government officials can make mistakes based on faulty information.

Even this paragraph goes after Mueller, the Republican special prosecutor appointed by Republicans, but he gets off the hook before the end.

Only seers will speculate what Mueller has discovered with proof at present, or more importantly, will discover in the investigation at a later date. But there will be another Cohen tape tonight and another favorable or unfavorable ruling from a judge on emoluments and such next week and (drum roll) the beginning of the Virginia trial of Paul Manafort begins at the end of the month - unless he rolls.

Sebastian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sebastian said...

"From the outset, Russiagate proponents have exhibited a blind faith in the unverified claims of US government officials and other sources, most of them unnamed...."

He fails to apply the Universal Theory of Progressive Instrumentalism. Of course, the key players themselves didn't have "blind faith" in the collusion narrative--after all, Brennan et al. had to concoct it by running an entrapment scheme against Papadopoulos. Some Russiagate proponents may fake faith, but most will change their tune as needed.

"The record of US intelligence, replete with lies and errors, underscores the need for caution. Mueller was a player in one of this century’s most disastrous follies"

More apropos is his record on framing and leaking about FBI suspects.

"But the procession of elite voices falling over themselves to declare that stealing e-mails and running juvenile social-media ads amount to an “attack,” even an “act of war,” are escalating a panic when a sober assessment is what is most needed...."

Again, the "panic" is carefully cultivated to achieve a result.

"With the attendant suspicion of Trump’s potential subordination to Putin, it is obscuring the reality in front of us... All seemed to overlook what Trump actually did: openly criticize Russia’s prized Nord Stream 2 gas project with Germany and badger NATO members to increase military spending...."

Nothing is obscuring the reality. Progs don't "overlook" what Trump does. They have a story and they are sticking to it. Example: Sen. Udall vs. Mike Pompeo yesterday. Here's what Trump is doing, said Pompeo; but what about his TAX RETURNS, badgered Udall.

"Amid fervent speculation that Trump may be a Kremlin asset, Israel’s brazen (and actually documented) foreign meddling barely registers...."

Lefty anti-semites just can't help themselves, can they. What could be more brazen than O having his people meddle in Israel and the UK? What could be more brazen than Steele and his Russian informants meddling in the U.S.?

And of course that is the oddest aspect of the whole narrative, if people want to give any credence to the notion of bad Russkis interfering with an election: the actual, demonstrated foreign meddling was carried out by a British ex-spy with the aid of Russian collaborators, at the behest of Hill and her campaign. Steele got paid to meddle. Which was preceded by extensive Russian influence-buying via Bill's speeches and donations to the Clinton Foundation.

gadfly said...

Spotted at Reagan International, Mueller shadowing Don Jr.

gadfly said...

Ah yes, "The Elite Fixation with Russiagate."

This just in from NBC:

WASHINGTON — After nearly two years of calling Russian election interference a hoax and its investigation a witch hunt, on Friday afternoon President Donald Trump is scheduled to preside over the first National Security Council meeting devoted to defending American democracy from foreign manipulation.

n.n said...

Conflation of Soviets and Russians by anachronistic special and peculiar interests aids the obsession.

buwaya said...

"President Donald Trump is scheduled to preside over the first National Security Council meeting devoted to defending American democracy from foreign manipulation."

I assume this will include Chinese, Arab, European and Mexican manipulations.
Else silliness will yet again ensue.

Matt Sablan said...

"With the attendant suspicion of Trump’s potential subordination to Putin, "

-- What subordination exactly?

Bay Area Guy said...

One thing to do about foreign manipulation of voting would be to audit all the voter registration forms in California.

You'd find a lotta illegal aliens on the voting rolls.

Imagine that.

buwaya said...

"You'd find a lotta illegal aliens on the voting rolls."

Maybe even some legal ones (not me!).

pdug said...

The Nation is having a fun time dealing with them publishing a poem that used black "AAVE" slightly incorrectly and possibly harmful to homeless people, and now falling all over themselves to apologize and resist calls for all their white editors to be fired/resign.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the best thing that may come out of all this nonsense is that US citizens will renew their healthy skepticism of government and its adjunct the media.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gbarto said...

n.n.:
“And just the historical practices of the Russians, who typically, are almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique. So, we were concerned.” - James Clapper
(quoted at the Observer)

Clapper wasn't worried about Soviet Communism. He was worried about them Russkies!

clint said...

Sebastian said...
"And of course that is the oddest aspect of the whole narrative, if people want to give any credence to the notion of bad Russkis interfering with an election: the actual, demonstrated foreign meddling was carried out by a British ex-spy with the aid of Russian collaborators, at the behest of Hill and her campaign. Steele got paid to meddle. Which was preceded by extensive Russian influence-buying via Bill's speeches and donations to the Clinton Foundation."

+1000.

Actual proven collusion with the actual intent to influence the election.

Entirely legal, of course, but it's also everything they're accusing Trump of, except it actually happened.

How the same people who cheer that can get into a snit over the idea that Trump, Jr. took a twenty minute meeting with someone who claimed to have a Russian source with proof of Clinton's crimes...

Bay Area Guy said...

@Buwaya,

"Maybe even some legal ones (not me!)"

We love legal immigrant! Shoot, often the US gets the cream of the crop.

The Left, though, has totally abandoned the concept of "assimilation." Instead of the "cream of the crop," they want hordes of unskilled illegal laborers to come her, get on welfare or do shit jobs, and not assimilate, as long as they potentially vote Democrat, either legally or illegally.

It is quite pathetic.

Bay Area Guy said...

If Putin were in California collecting absentee ballots from illegal aliens to vote (always Democrat), and some committee started investigating it, the Left would be screaming, "Don't suppress the vote!" and "Every vote counts!"

Qwinn said...

It's not just The Nation that covered for Russian malfeasance for the last 100 years. The entire Democrat Party has for at least 50. Obama famously joked about Russia as a threat as recently as 2012 ("the 80s called").

The Nation is being consistent, at least. The Democrats as a whole are being pso utterly inconsistent with absolutely no explanation or justification that they should be considered completely discredited permanently. Yet again.

trumpintroublenow said...

The good news is that there is something called the "truth," and thanks to Mueller in particular, at some point in the not too distant future everyone of good faith will know what really happened, if anything, between Trump and Russia.

tcrosse said...

everyone of good faith will know what really happened

A minority if ever there was one.

Bob Loblaw said...

Is there any sane person that believes this? Trump, a Russian agent?

Well, that's a "no true Scotsman" argument, isn't it? Suffice to say there are a whole lot of people on the left who believe just that, and no, they're not sane.

The Godfather said...

It's presumably clear to every sentient person by now that there's no evidence that Trump colluded with the Russians to affect the 2016 Presidential election. The Mueller investigation continues as (a) a fishing expedition to find Trump-related persons guilty of un-Trump-related crimes, and (b) to taint Trump's exercise of Presidential authority as "obstruction of justice." My prediction: Mueller will release or leak something BIG shortly before the 2018 Congressional elections.

Drago said...

Steve Uhr: "The good news is that there is something called the "truth," and thanks to Mueller in particular, at some point in the not too distant future everyone of good faith will know what really happened,"

LOL

I'm sure Steven Hatfill and the 4 railroaded innocent men in the Whitey Bulger/Mueller cover up would tell us something very different.

tim in vermont said...

d thanks to Mueller in particular, at some point in the not too distant future everyone of good faith will know what really happened

LOL, Yes, no true American will doubt Mueller! I hope he does come out with some far fetched theory of Russian collusion with Trump that the Democrats then seize on for impeachment, hopefully a little before the midterms.

As has been pointed out, if Trump had paid some English spy, and give them money to pay Russian spies for dirt, the way Hillary did, and logged it as “legal expenses” in campaign financial disclosures, I am quite sure that nobody on the left would have said a word! It’s all about setting up the proper shell corporations that makes everything legal!

FullMoon said...

My prediction: Mueller will release or leak something BIG shortly before the 2018 Congressional elections.
Yep/ October surprise. If not Mueller, Tom Arnold or another whacko.
Does not need to be true, of course. A lie will do for the left and traitorous Republicans

Drago said...

I believe Mueller will pull the pin on the political grenade and indict in Oct.

He has to.

If Trump survives so many corrupt ops Mueller has been central to will eventually be exposed once Rosenstein is fired (which he will be eventually)

Its either going to be Trump driven from office on made up "crimes" or the entire leadership caste from the obama/hillary era being exposed.

Political thunderdome.

An Oct indictment of a sitting President on fake charges.

Count on it.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

On the left, truth is whatever you want it to be. Trump and Poot tricked us, colluded, laundered money, giggled over some e-mails, oligarched, wired facebook ads to facebook junkies - and it was all lies about poor wonderful honest HIllary. All lies!

Drago said...

Dickin'Bimbos@Home: "On the left, truth is whatever you want it to be."

Quite true.

Already 55% of LLR Chucks democrat allies belueve that Putin changed literal votes ti help get Trump ekected.

Which is precisely why LLR Chuck and his lefty buddies characteruze events the way they do.

It is the long term goal of Chuck and his lefty allies to call into question any future republican wins.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

@ Tim
As has been pointed out, if Trump had paid some English spy, and give them money to pay Russian spies for dirt, the way Hillary did, and logged it as “legal expenses” in campaign financial disclosures, I am quite sure that nobody on the left would have said a word! It’s all about setting up the proper shell corporations that makes everything legal!

Don't it feel good to be a clinton.

Michael K said...

thanks to Mueller in particular, at some point in the not too distant future everyone of good faith will know what really happened, if anything, between Trump and Russia.

You just might have stumbled on the truth. The Mueller witch hunt is going to blow up and it will be obvious, even to clueless lefties like you that there is no there there.

Will you believe it? I doubt it.

Michael K said...

Even this paragraph goes after Mueller, the Republican special prosecutor appointed by Republicans, but he gets off the hook before the end.

gadfly is certain, absolutely certain, that there is a pony under all that horse shit.

Drago said...

Michael k: "Will you believe it? I doubt it."

I hope they dont.

The absolute last thing I want the dems/left/LLR's to exhibit is sanity.

I am quite pleased with how all is proceeding.

Drago said...

LLR Chuck exposing his lunacy on the GDP thread and gadfly, The Poor Man's LLR Chuck exposing his/her/xis lunacy on this one, hilarity abounds!

MPH said...

The Nation has always been a Russia/USSR apologist rag. It’s no different in 2018 than it was in 1940.

Editor/publisher Katrina van Heuvel and her husband, NYU prof Stephen F. Cohen, are two of Putin’s most outspoken apologists alive in American public life today.

Bad Lieutenant said...

gadfly is certain, absolutely certain, that there is a pony under all that horse shit.


Mike, you've got it the other way round. Gadfly, presented with a pony, is going through it looking for the shit.

Oso Negro said...

@ComancheVoter - Obama was a stinker, but his weaponization of the IRS was not without precendent - F.D. Roosevelt put the IRS on his opponents and critics routinely.

donald said...

I’ll feel you who KNOWS that Donald Trump is a Russian operative. Rick Roberts, the least talented Flying Burrito Brother and founder of Firefall. If you ever wanna read some serious cocaine inspired/literally fell and bumped his head paranoia on this subject, look him up on a Facebook. His peanut gallery ain’t so stable either.

donald said...

Tell. I’ll yell you. Yeah.

Rusty said...

"An Oct indictment of a sitting President on fake charges.

Count on it."

Better pray that doesn't happen.
The fallout will be violent , indeed.