Russian Collusion Delusion as Plan B? What were They Thinking?

Forgive me some random thoughts. I ask your help in formulating a coherent argument here.

The Putin-Trump collusion hoax has ended exactly as any reasonable observer would have predicted. With the end of the turtle-paced Mueller inquiry, we found out what most sane people already knew, that, to steal from Gertrude Stein, "There is no there there." This collusion story almost certainly constitutes the second biggest hoax in American political history; second only to the Climate Change hoax. Charles Dawson, father of the Piltdown Man hoax, would doff his cap to the creators of the Putin-Trump tale.

I don't want (again) to go into all the facets of this incredible lie. More details will emerge in coming weeks, as the Republicans begin to probe its origins and, I hope, hold accountable the many Charles Dawsons who participated in it. And, yes, Barack Obama, I am looking at you.

Today's little post comprises a thinking aloud piece. As noted, please help me flesh out the ideas and get more clarity on this disaster.

The first thoughts that come to mind: What were they thinking? How did the promoters of this lie think it would end? What exit plan did they have?

The collusion lie originated, it seems, in the run-up to the 2016 election, and formed a key part of the Clinton strategy to ensure Trump's defeat--please note, the word ensure. That strategy, of course, depended on the support of Obama and his key staff, e.g., Rice, Power, Kerry, Brennan, Comey, Lynch, Clapper, McCabe, and so on. Obama, in effect, offered the intelligence and law enforcement agencies and capabilities of the United States to the Hillary Clinton campaign. The Clinton campaign cooked up the collusion lie as a way not only to smear Trump, but to provide cover for the use of those agencies and capabilities to spy upon and tamper with the Trump campaign. Watergate on steroids? Much, much worse.

Let's run over this very quickly and with broad brush strokes--I am leaving out a lot of details: the Hillary campaign, through its lawyers, bought some shoddy and salacious oppo research from a shoddy and shady firm, Fusion GPS, that contracted a hack former British spy, Christopher Steele, to write it up. The material, put together in a "dossier," proved absurd, poorly sourced and researched, and laughable on its face. That, however, was irrelevant. This flimsy dossier, apparently at CIA Director John Brennan's urging, circulated within the top echelons of the US government and to select Congressmen--including John McCain--and then circled back to the FBI. The FBI then used it as primary "evidence" in seeking FISA warrants to conduct surveillance operations on the Trump campaign. The FBI, it seems, did not tell the FISA judges from whence came the "intel," to wit, from an unverified piece of opposition "research" paid for by Trump's political rivals. Certain details of the dossier got leaked to friendly journalists by Brennan, Comey, and others, and given the imprimatur of official intel.

The Dems assumed all along, clearly, that Hillary would beat the Donald like a rented mule. Nearly all the polls and pundits had declared this a scientific certainty. This dossier and the Russian collusion story served, in the words of a disgraced FBI attorney to her lover, as "an insurance policy." Once Hillary won, of course, the story would, I assume, just become some sort of vague political lore that would permanently stain Trump, and prove the source of endless Hollywood movies.

The cooked up collusion story encountered a big problem on November 8, 2016: Clinton lost. The unthinkable happened: Trump won. The Dems, US government agencies, and, yes, Obama, went into high gear to develop a plan, some kind of "Hail Mary Pass" to keep Trump from taking office and cover up the grotesque malfeasance involved in the Collusion story. They attempted a number of strategies, e.g., pressing the electoral college not to recognize Trump's victory, talking impeachment, hinting at a military coup, demanding recounts, unleashing street thugs, etc. The collusion story was modified to place heavy emphasis on Russian "hacking of the election," trying to give the impression that the Russians had tampered with the voting machines themselves. Progs, who never cared about American security when the USSR strode the stage or our sovereignty or about the meddling in our elections by hundreds-of-thousands if not millions of illegal aliens, now wrapped themselves in the flag, proclaiming themselves great patriots fighting a foreign power seeking to take over our White House.

Trump, President! What to do with the Great Collusion lie? Just as ordinary criminals and congenital liars do, the Obama folks, the DNC, and the prog echo chamber in the media and Hollywood, doubled down on their criminal activities and lies. The story would, must survive. The Russia collusion story, a campaign stunt, gained a life of its own; Frankenstein's monster lived! In order to terrorize the deplorable villagers, the mad political scientists insisted on and got themselves a Special Counsel to "investigate" the non-existing crimes of Trump. They even managed to mau-mau Trump's new Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, into recusing himself, and turning over the whole investigatory process to the pro-Obama prog swamp creatures that controlled the DOJ and the FBI. James Comey's buddy, Robert Mueller, got the assignment as Special Counsel, with almost unfettered power to pick staff and even define the extent of his mission; he, furthermore, had no apparent budgetary or time restrictions. All the money and the time in the world, dear Robbie. Do your thing! Get us a scalp!

Mueller would keep the story alive! And that he did! His investigation not only would create a huge cloud for the Trump people, but plunged many of them into legal and financial jeopardy as they faced interrogation and prosecution/persecution for alleged sins and "crimes" having nothing to do with Collusion. Investigators used slimy Beria-type tactics against innocent people, threatening them with crippling legal costs and long prison terms for unspecified crimes and errors, to force them to confess and name others. As the story had no substance, of course, they sought to push people, including President Trump, into committing procedural transgressions, into falling into perjury traps, into "obstructing." (Please note: The fake FBI investigation into Hillary, of course, did none of those: she was not even put under oath.) Accompanying the investigation, we had an almost daily supply of leaks from "anonymous" sources relating, in breathless terms, that the "noose was tightening," "the walls were closing in on Trump," that soon "another bombshell" would drop, that Mueller and the intel services had verified key "portions of the Dossier," that evil Trump was about to fire Mueller--Save Mueller! Soon, they told us, soon, yes, soon, we would see a "hard, hard rain" (h/t Bob Dylan) of indictments fall on the White House: Trump and his whole family would exit 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in hand-cuffs! In addition, lest we forget, former bosses of the intel services got lucrative gigs on mainstream media outlets assuring us that Collusion was real, and proven beyond a doubt. Hollywood stars, late-night comics, and once-minor prog TV personalities rode the story to fame and fortune hyping daily "revelations." Journalists won Pulitzer Prizes for reporting fantasy.

Stand by! Impeachment is Imminent! Stand by! Stand by!

The prog machine strung out this absurd story for over two years; it ran prominently during the 2018 midterm elections, and, possibly, could have contributed to GOP losses in the House. As with anything, however, there comes a time when even the mightiest machine can no longer block an outcome. The Mueller report went to the new AG. Mueller's vast team had spent two years investigating, and produced not one indictment for "collusion". . . fizzle, fizzle, fizzle. "There is no there there," as Mueller and the creators of this scam knew all along.

Now, of course, the cry is to release the whole report. There must be something in those hundreds of pages that we can use to impeach or smear Trump and the deplorables! The fat lady hasn't REALLY sung yet, right? Right? Please! Warm up the band, she still has some air in her lungs!

OK. Like I said, these are thoughts. We are still left with one big question about all this. What were THEY thinking? What were they thinking would happen at the end? There are lots of possible scenarios but they all depend on one basic assumption.

What were they thinking? Simple, it was that the rest us were not.