Let's start with the least interesting stuff and move our way up the scale.
According to Barr, Mueller found that Russian intelligence services mounted an effort to meddle in our 2016 elections. This meddling, in its mildest version, took various forms, such as fake Twitter accounts, other internet postings by "Russian bots," and some purchases of ads in social media. The object was "to sow social discord" with the hope of impacting the election in some unstated way. (Note: We know from other reports that the Russian effort seemed to work for and against both candidates.) The Russian intel effort also included a more severe version which involved hacking into computers and getting emails from Clinton staff and the DNC.
Obstruction of justice. Per Barr's summary, the Special Counsel looked into actions by the President--most of them public--"as potentially raising obstruction of justice concerns." The Special Counsel, however, declined to make a judgement one way or the other and left it up to the AG. In other words, Mueller didn't have the goods but decided to smear Trump anyhow, even though he acknowledges no underlying crime existed. My last post sorta predicted he would do this,
[Mueller] might say, that well, he has no ability to go further with the investigation for this or that reason, and recommends handing off portions of it to other prosecutors. He might also go full reptile and state that there was collusion but it does not rise to the level of prosecution, but maybe Congress should consider impeachment, or any number of variations on that theme.He, inserted in other words, a poison pill into the report in the hopes of causing the President political damage by giving Dems a justification to continue their insane investigation/impeachment effort. Mueller, in highly technical legal jargon, went full reptile, and led to headlines that the report "does not exonerate Trump!" What rubbish. A prosecutor does not convict or exonerate. He indicts and lets the courts do the rest. If he doesn't have the goods to indict, he shuts up. Totally outrageous for a prosecutor to smear an innocent person in this manner, not unlike what Comey did to Clinton in July 2016, and which this blog criticized (also here and here) (Note: One big difference between what Comey did and what Mueller did: AG Lynch already had told the FBI and Bill Clinton that she would not prosecute Hillary Clinton before the investigation had run its course.) The AG, rightly, in the Trump case has declined to pursue the matter.
Now to the key portion: collusion.
Per Barr, Mueller directly states, "the Special Counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election." Bam! Game. Over. Rug. Pulled. Out. From. Under. Dems. Adam Schiff please turn in your resignation letter.
Trump wins. America wins. The progs and their insane enablers and followers lose another one. The Russia Collusion story joins the Fake Narrative Club of Christine Blakely Ford, Jussie Smollet, Fast and Furious, Mattress Girl, UVA Rape Victim, Hands up Don't Shoot, Racist Covington High School kids, etc.
Let's have some fun:
Russian espionage and political meddling.
OK, anybody surprised? This humble blog wrote a long time ago (for example, here and here) about Russian interference in our political processes. This has been a long, long, long standing effort by Moscow, both as the capital of Russia and of the late-USSR. Moscow, please note, was doing it when Bernie Sanders went there on his honeymoon. The Soviets/Russians did and do this a lot, and not just in the USA. They have ample espionage, influence, and sabotage operations throughout the West. Did it prove effective in altering the election results? Please. Russia did not make Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania go for Trump. Russia did not make Clinton take a three day break in the final phase of the election, and so on. All of that you can assign to Hillary Clinton's very bad campaign and to Donald Trump's very good campaign.
Let us also never cease to remind the Demo/Progos that the 2016 Russian interference took place on Obama's watch. What did he do about it? Not much. In fact, as it turns out, Obama and Clinton used the excuse of Russian interference to justify spying on Trump's campaign and to have the CIA, NSA, FBI, etc.--not to mention the media--serve as extensions of the Democrat Party.
I have written before about another country's meddling in our politics, a meddling which far outweighs any by Russia. One guess. Yes, Mexico! See posts here and here. Not only do Mexican senior officials, all the way up to the Mexican presidency, openly encourage their citizens to vote in the US and tell them how, but our own President Obama made clear he would not prosecute foreigners voting; the Dems continue that policy by encouraging aliens to vote and making it easier and easier for them to do so. Time to build the wall and to shut down some of Mexico's fifty-two diplomatic and consular offices in the US.
Another observation I have made before: If Putin wanted and worked to get Trump elected, he got conned. Putin got a bad deal. What did Putin receive for his supposed efforts? He got more sanctions; a reborn US military budget; a reborn US energy sector killing his number one export; and a resurgent US economy. He also got a couple of hundred of his prized Wagner Group mercs pounded into the sand by US artillery and airpower. A bad deal, Vlad. Real bad.
Don't make Putin your stock broker.
The whole Russia collusion investigation hoax formed a major component of the ongoing Demo/Progo effort to undo the 2016 elections, in other words, to engineer an American coup (here and here). This attempt involved getting foreigners to vote (noted above), insisting on no voter id requirements, use of vote harvesting, calling on electors of the Electoral College not to vote for Trump, incessant recount demands, a faked up dossier paid for by the Clinton campaign, calling for a military coup, misuse of the FISA process, the weaponizing of the IRS, EPA, and our law enforcement/intel agencies for use against American citizens, trying to fill the streets with violent ANTIFA thugs, and more. The progos sought and seek to destroy our core institutions in order to gain and keep power.
Back in October 2017, I wrote,
When all the spinning, talking points, and bad/fake news reporting ends, one is left with the irrefutable fact that the Democrats lied about Trump's links to Russia. They lied BECAUSE, in fact, they were the ones in cahoots with the Russians. Bill and Hillary aided Vlad's effort to corner the world's uranium market in exchange for, (drumroll, shocked face) money! Lots of it. Some (around $145 million or so) funneled to the odious criminal organization known as the Clinton Foundation, and other large amounts handed directly to Bill as "speaking fees."
The Clintons and Obama were dead certain Hillary would win the election, and all this grotesque corruption and selling out of the nation's interests would be buried and ignored. Hillary's campaign and the Democratic Party leadership paid millions to a shady outfit (Fusion GPS) to develop a narrative about Trump being the Ruskies' Pet Poodle. In violation of US election laws, the Dems paid millions to foreigners, including Russians, to cook up the salacious but very fake "dossier" on Trump and help ensure the election would go Hillary's way.
It's all coming apart now, a massive train wreck.That analysis holds up, and there you have the real scandal.
While everybody has grown sick of investigations, for our country's sake, however, we need to investigate and hold accountable those who ginned up and perpetuated this colossal hoax. Heads must roll: Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Strozk, Page, and others of that ilk must face justice. The list goes on: Rice, Power, Yates, Lynch, Clinton, Podesta, and, yes, Obama need to appear before investigators to explain their reptilian actions, their effort to do nothing less than rip up and flush away the Constitution. The fake news journalists and those "experts," including former officials, who appeared day after day pushing this bogus story, citing non-existent evidence need to be shamed and fired. Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi, to name just two in Congress, who almost daily told us of the "mountain of stone cold evidence" of Trump-Putin collusion, need to be reprimanded and forced out. We need justice for the people falsely accused and smeared, some of whom have gone bankrupt with legal fees trying to defend themselves against the Lord High Inquisitor.
Not in the mood for mercy or for moving on. Get'em all! Dig out, expose, and punish the snakes in our system who sought to pull off this coup.
MAGA!
Extremely well said, and I endorse your sentiments 100%, particularly the conclusion.
ReplyDeleteThis evil scheme has endangered our very existence as a country; hundreds of people (or more) have had their lives uprooted, some have been imprisoned; this wrongdoing must be rooted out, exposed to the light of day, and those responsible for setting this dark evil in motion need to be punished to the utmost!
No justice, no trust!
DeletewhitewallMarch 25, 2019 at 3:03 PM
Delete"No justice, no trust!"
Think I hear a 'Direct Action' CHANT a'formulatin~~~ or maybe tis a Sea Chantey, what we can all put our shoulders into~~~Yo Ho Ho and a 'Rat on a Pike~~~
OW~~~
"[M]isuse of the FISA process."
ReplyDeleteToo kind Sir.
The *shenanigans surrounding the recusal of U.S. District Court [FISC!] Judge Rudolph Contreras ought be clarion call enough to make plain 'misuse' is insufficient.
A cogent and well-reasoned article, Mr. Diplomad!
ReplyDeleteLet's see what Mr. Neanderthal-brow says in reply. You KNOW the demented demonrats will not quietly skulk away into the night...
You are spot on!
ReplyDeleteWe need to be the best damn lobbyists for right and justice.
If I am reading it right, it says that the AG and Rosenstein concluded there was no obstruction of justice. They said it, even if Mueller didn't.
ReplyDeleteAG and Rosenstein concluded there was no obstruction of justice.
DeleteWish they did say that Teri, without going back to fact check, I suspect it was more like: Insufficient evidence was found to support the "obstruction of justice" theory as advanced by RobbitMuler et al.
Of course the Progo'Rats and the GOPelite still suckin air in Congress, and the rest of the creepy anti-US vermin suckin on the Gubmint teet, as well as the as yet unindicted accomplices, aka the Co-Plotter's contending that they will find such Damming Evidence against the Constitutionally elected President of the USA, just as soon as The SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR's "FULL REPORT" is released.
If Not released, there must be a COVER UP, engineered by the Chief Executive, and his ROTTEN Capitalist cronies on the Right! Perhaps its time for the Donald and the NEW FBI to start offering REWARD $$$ for INFORMATION leading to the ARREST and CONVICTION of the Treasonous Perpetrators responsible for the last 2-YEARS and 26 Million Dollar$ BLED from the TAXPAYERS Wallet!?
On Watch~~~
"Let's Roll"
That's correct, the AG and his Deputy said it.
DeleteI just put it more whimsically over on Duff's but I'll add the capsuled here:
DeleteNo predicate crime. No obstruction.
Or,
How does one obstruct the investigation of something that didn't happen?
JK
"That's correct, the AG and his Deputy said it." WLA
DeleteMarvelous! Wishes do come true after all! ;)
Btw, 'nice piece' of Work!
OW~~~
"How does one obstruct the investigation of something that didn't happen?" JK
DeleteHmmmm think I'll have to defer your question to the Prosecutor, Counselor. I'll close while I'm ahead by saying: if this, then because of this! :P
Back when I worked for the Army, I formulated a saying, "The Government moves slowly, and crushes everything in its path". I suspect that prosecutions of some of those involved will occur over time, and nothing really is in the way of the President exercising some more of the removal of TS clearances for the lot of them. This effectively stymies their incomes. Hitting the income ability is going to be the best we get with many of these snakes. Maybe McCabe gets a conviction for the press leaks. Realistically, I think most of them will evade convictions, especially the Clintons. They have way too much dirty laundry in their hamper that they will use to evade prosecution.
ReplyDeletePrior to the 2016 election I had posted a comment that Trump was a master of deception ops and he would win. You said you hoped I was right.
ReplyDeleteNow I say that you have witnessed over the last couple years his deception ops taken to another level. While the Dems have played their games, he has people behind the scenes getting the goods on them. If you dig in the news just today you can see the bombs being dropped on the Dems...examples: Avenatti indicted, Geragos caught in that case too..oh wait he's also a lawyer in the NXIVM cult case right now...that cult has DEEP ties to the Clintons...the defense had 29 lawyers in court..wown someone is scared and trying to cover up that mess. Then the Duke University science research scandal (Duke to pay $114M)..list goes on. And the best is yet to come still!
D'Mad,
ReplyDeleteFirst, what have you got against reptiles? Surely they do not deserve to be compared to such as Adam Schiff!
But speaking of Schiff, what have you got to say about his latest investigation into Trump's misbehavior? There might be a report about how Trump, as a 12 year old, J Walked!!!!! The Creepy Porn Lawyer might have a witness!
Green Bear
Isn't seppuku really the only option left for Schiff, Pelosi, and Schumer, now? How else can you wash away the stain of sedition?
ReplyDeleteSeppuku is to regain your Honor.
DeleteYou have to have had some first before Seppuku would be in order...
SCOTTtheBADGER: Isn't seppuku really the only option left for Schiff, Pelosi, and Schumer, now? How else can you wash away the stain of sedition?
ReplyDelete-------
I call dibs on being their second -- just to make sure they don't chicken out. I'm a giver that way.
Seppuku requires a concept of honor. The left has none. Only appetite.
ReplyDeleteSee if this makes sense:
ReplyDeleteThe conspiracy/collusion issues were straight-forward legal questions - if Mueller could check off every required element of some offense, he could bring charges for that offense. He couldn't check all of the boxes for any crime, and so he declared no prosecution.
The obstruction issue is different. Because of Trump's position as the head of the exec branch, there's a lot of legal uncertainty as to whether he COULD be said to have obstructed anything - he's nominally in charge of the prosecution as an executive function, and in fact could even pardon people after the fact, and so there exists a strong argument that nothing Trump could do could rise to the level of obstruction.
And so Mueller essentially said, I handled the legal issues for you, but this - the obstruction - is actually a political question, and thus outside of my remit. Here, he said, you do it.
If I'm reading this correctly, Mueller handled it exactly right.
What was the underlying crime? None
Deletehttps://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-mccarthy-report/episode-39-arrival/
DeleteJK
"What was the underlying crime?"
DeleteSame as Martha Stewart's underlying crime. None. Not needed.
What a waste of time and money
ReplyDeleteIF (a big IF) Trump and Barr can now use this whole debacle to cleanse the DoJ/FBI (hell, the whole SeS field) of the rot and corruption inside the top ranks, then it may well be worth it.
DeleteAs an interested outside observer the whole scenario seemed to be a beat up to damage your President right from the start.
ReplyDeleteThat it has failed, and failed miserably, is not surprising.
On the other hand I wouldn't be holding your breath waiting for those who are culpable of actions contrary to the welfare of your country to be prosecuted. And certainly not while the Democrats hold your lower house.
In a just world your Federal Prisons would be bulging with those who have willfully participated in this fraudulent witch hunt. The world is anything but just and it isn't going to happen. History is full of examples.
That the guilty can walk away untouched is illustrated amply by the Jussie Smollet fiasco in Chicago.
I hope I am wrong but only time will tell.
I think you're right and hope you're wrong.
DeleteSo Russia tried to influence the election. This should not be a surprise to anyone. The US is the most powerful nation on earth. Russia (and China, and Japan, and Israel, and Germany, and the UK, and...) all have a very vested interest in who runs the US. They would be derelict in their duty, frankly, if they did not try to influence our elections...and, I suspect, have been trying to do so for a very long time.
ReplyDelete