Democrats’ expectations for Robert Muller and his investigation of the Trump campaign and possible collusion with Russia have risen to such heights that it’s hard to imagine that they won’t be seriously disappointed.
Democrats Are Gay for Robert Mueller and It’s Getting Silly
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
17 Comments. Leave new
Wasn’t that rather dear Prince Harry, Ted ?… 😉
Henri
Does it matter? They’re all Germans anyway.
Those Saxe-Coburg und Gotha genes do seem to come to the fore, Alex. Note that the mother of the present King of Sweden was one of them….
Henri
Basically, if you ever need an argument for why inbreeding is a bad idea, look to the royal family. None of them has a job…
Mueller Report summary:
The MR will contain a series of statements which will all fall into three classes:
1. Things that DT said, did, or ordered to be done, with evidence showing that DT said, did, or ordered those things to be done.
2. Things that people around DT CLAIM that DT said, did, or ordered to be done.
3. Things that happened.
DT’s supporters will dismiss the second, no matter how compelling. A recent example of this level of cognitive dissonance can be seen by examining the reaction of some of Hillary Clinton’s supporters to her loss to one of the least qualified candidates in recent history: “She won the popular vote!” The HRC supporter rejects the reality that she was a terrible candidate, that she willingly and deliberately colluded with the DNC to cheat Bernie Sanders by rigging the primaries, etc., and instead asserts a completely paralogical detail as a refutation of what objectively happened: DT, whether you love him or hate him, won the Electoral College.
It doesn’t matter if the MR contains sworn testimony from five separate sources, all saying the same thing; DT’s supporters (and that’s about a third of the country), will simply dismiss it.
DT, much like many politicians, (and again, the Clintons can be held up as an example) has been surrounded by scandals and dirty dealings for a long time. And as with Bill and Hill, he has always ducked any serious repercussions of his behavior. Why? He’s not stupid enough to leave an evidence trail.
It will be the same with this report: a lot of linkages that DT will simply handwave away as lies from losers.
And the media, having given away all of its gravitas in a desperate attempt to get clicks, will be unable to offer a credible counterweight to that narrative.
What few facts that can be linked directly to DT will also be handwaved away, assuming any of those facts are actually significant.
I doubt the MR will succeed at “proving” Russian collusion in the court of public opinion that will be needed to be win over in order to impressive DT. Thus, Mueller will, much like HRC, win the popular vote, but lose the Electoral College.
Sorry, last paragraph got mangled on phone and timer ran out to edit. Should be as follows:
I doubt the MR will succeed at “proving” Russian collusion in the court of public opinion that will be needed to be won over in order to IMPEACH DT. Thus, Mueller will, much like HRC, win the popular vote, but lose the Electoral College.
Funny, “impeach” does make betterer sense.
Thank you for the scare quotes, btw, there is indeed an important difference between proving something and convincing someone.
> DT’s supporters (and that’s about a third of the country), will simply dismiss it.
Yup, much the same way as they dismiss inconvenient truths such as DJTJR’s influence peddling and Maria Butina’s confession today. Facts just don’t matter to Trump supporters such as Ted and most commenters here.
>:-D
> He’s not stupid enough to leave an evidence trail.
I think you vastly over-estimate his intelligence. He’s *already* left a trail a mile wide, partly because he’s stupid and partly because his former career didn’t require subtlety.
I should clarify. When I say he won’t leave a trail of evidence, I mean that this whole thing is looking more and more like he was paying off a woman he slept with to keep her quiet. That’s blatantly obvious already.
But the “evidence” for “Russian collusion” keeps NOT coming up. All I’ve seen so far is dubious testimony. Michael Cohen, who makes Nixon look like a boy scout, actually made Trump seem likable.
Lee Atwater had a gimmick for campaigns: the issue had to fit on an index card. The Russian collusion thing is still like one of those 55 page instruction sets that used to come with electronic devices. Where’s the semen-stained blue dress? Where’s the photo of J. Edgar in silk hose? It’s all just wonkery and second-level linkages. It simply isn’t going to be enough.
“Facts just don’t matter to Trump supporters such as Ted and most commenters here.”
Your psychic world is in collapse and all who do not share your delusions now belong (in your mind) to the enemy camp.
Your repetitive obsessive compulsive thoughts are an obvious display of persecution complex symptoms.
Don’t take Hillary’s loss so personally. It’s not worth a Heaven’s Gate type cult demise.
She really is responsible for her own loss and Trump’s win.
So take off your black shirt and sweat pants, brand new black-and-white Nike Decades athletic shoes, and armband patches reading “Heaven’s Gate Away Team” and burn them.
And stop watching Rachael Madcow.
You will feel better after being deprogrammed.
«But the “evidence” for “Russian collusion” keeps NOT coming up. » Say what one will about that matter, but the failure of such evidence to turn up is hardly for want of trying on the part of investigators and the media. Blaming others – those dastardly Russians who elected Mr Trump behind the backs of right-thinking US citizens and those equally dastardly Chinese are responsible for the de-industrialisation of the US – for one’s own failures is the path of least resistance and extremely convenient. Not surprising that some people who never heard of Cui bono ? are suckered in by the narrative….
Henri
@Alex – I just posted solid proof on another thread, but I’m happy to plagiarize myself:
Proof[1] DJTJR tried to peddle Presidential Influence to a Russian Agent in exchange for Dirt On Hillary.
Proof[2] e-mail exchanges between Sater and Cohen, regarding The Moscow Project: “I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,” … “I know how to play it and we will get this done. Buddy our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this,”
@Glenn, as usual your post says far more about you than about me.
In your little black and white world, you are unable conceive of anything other than “Pro-Hillary” / “Anti-Hillary.” It causes such cognitive dissonance that you are unable to acknowledge objective reality.
I know this hard for you to accept, but some things happen in this world that are completely unrelated to Hillary.
CrazyH,
Re: Your evidence. Proofs [1] and [2] will be handwaved off by Trump’s enablers as “overenthusiastic” and “well-intensioned” members of his team overstepping authority (WITHOUT his knowledge) or as the demented lies of demented liars (e.g., MIchael Cohen).
The point about wanting dirt on HRC? Trump will simply go “heh-heh” at the podium and say, “Look, I was running for the presidency. For the beautiful, terrific presidency. And that’s the big leagues. Look at what Crooked Hillary did to poor Bernie Sanders. All political campaigns do things like that. Hey, I’m sorry my son so badly wanted me to win that he made mistakes, but hey, what about Whitewater, all the women Bill molested, the dnc giving Crooked Hillary the debate questions, etc.” Trump will make it all seem like, gosh darn it, a heartwarming scene from a very special episode of “Blossom” and, when weighed by the behavior of other politicians, not really that bad after all.
I think we’ve covered this before but I’m going to stick with it. Unless it’s Donald Trump on a recording saying something like, “I don’t care if it breaks the law …” it just isn’t going to be enough. Trump’s spent so much time crowing about the Fake News, and the MSM has spent so long being just really and truly awful and trivial, that his “argument” will actually be sufficient for him to stay out of jail.
I don’t like Trump, but so far, all the evidence I’ve been shown is remarkably like all the evidence I’ve seen against the Clintons: both surnames have always been smart enough to never put anything down that can be traced back to them with sufficient confidence for a jury to convict.
The Clinton Foundation was the ultimate iteration of this: It’s not possible to prove pay-for-play. But boyhowdy it sure looks like it.
@Alex – we have indeed been here before, and we’re talking cross-purposes. I’m concerned whether Duh Donald is guilty, while you’re concerned whether he will be convicted.
For the record, I sincerely doubt he’ll be convicted and even if so – I doubt he’ll do time. “Only the little people do time” – (Leona Helmsley or someone like her.)
Proofs1 & 2 do show that Team Trump is unequivocally guilty of collusion. Game, Set, and Match. Done Deal. Final Offer. The End. So the only interesting question is whether Daddy knew what Junior and his Consigliori were doing.
Komrade Trumpinov is on record saying that he doesn’t trust Jr’s decision making capabilities. I’m “pretty sure” that Daddy knew all about that meeting, but I can’t prove it … today. Neither can I prove he knew what his fixer was doing … but I do know that a fixer’s job description includes “plausible deniability.”
True Fact: DJT was opposed to naming his first child ‘Donald, Jr.’ He asked “What if he turns out to be a loser?” Today, Jr. doesn’t go number two without Daddy’s permission … the readers can decide for themselves whether they believe Jr. was meeting with a foreign spy without Daddy’s permission.
♪ ♫
A foreign spy comes in
by the name
of U-31.
On his first day in
He’s done in
By a Hit and Run.
♪ ♫
NAME THAT TUNE!
And in other news, the deniers have sunk to such depths that it’s hard to imagine they won’t feel disappointed when they discover there wasn’t a ginormous hoax perpetrated by a Vast Left Wing Conspiracy comprising the RNC, DNC, CIA, FBI, NSA, HS, DOD, DOJ, MI-5, Interpol, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Google, Maria Butina, Donald Trump Jr, Natalia Veselnitskaya, Paul Manfort, Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, Rosicrucians, Romulans, Republicans, Repitiliens and every cybersecurity firm in the US …
… all because they were very said Hillary lost.