Ponder the investigation results. With unlimited resources, two years, and the help of 90% of the media cheerleading them on, the investigation could not find evidence of the made-up crime of "collusion."
Indeed, if there was something to the accusation, it would be treasonous for Mueller to have kept it quiet for this long, wouldn't it?
Anyway, this is the report executive summary:
After all this time and money spent on this Democratic-driven sturm und drang investigation we know that in 2016, as I argued at the time, the Russians act like bastard Russians.
And we know Trump acts like crude Trump.
And we know Democrats act like Democrats--which in the last two years consisted of amplifying (to 11!) the Russian actions and adopting the Trump style to the point that they make Trump look good by comparison.
Although it isn't quite fair to say nothing changes. Against all the odds Trump managed to get the Democrats--of all people--to go full General Ripper on the Russians in defense of our precious electoral body fluids.
After two years of Democrats insisting that Mueller had to be allowed to finish his investigation; now that he did exactly that the Democrats will argue it wasn't enough.
And it never will be enough to overcome their embarrassment of nominating the only Democrat capable of losing to Trump in 2016.
No conspiracy is too wild to believe if it allows them to avoid facing the reality that they gave us Trump. Imagine how they'll act when they give us more Trump by turning their fantasy world resistance to 11 for four years.
Hysteria cannot be deflated by a mere report. Not even by a report that the hysterics insisted had to be completed. Is it possible to turn the dial to 12?
UPDATE: I stand corrected. Almost nothing will change much:
Forty-one percent of voters say that there is “no chance at all” that something in Mueller’s report could change how they feel about Trump.
Half, 50 percent, say there is at least a small chance they could change their view. That includes one in five who say there is a “strong” chance (7 percent) or “some” chance (14 percent), and another 29 percent who say there is “only a small chance.”
So there you go.
UPDATE: Oh, and for a lot of conservatives, the so-called Deep State* is pretty inept if it couldn't come up with something after all this time, no?
*"Deep State" as a term simply overstates the basic notion that the executive bureaucracy is a virtual 4th branch of government that has inertia difficult to change; and of course individuals in it can behave criminally or with unacceptable political bias, without it being a vast entity acting as the "real" government.
UPDATE: "The letter." Basically vindication. The people claiming they had clear evidence of collusion--whatever that was supposed to be--should have some explaining to do.
And I'll note again that it took the defeat of Hillary to get Obama angry at a foreign foe.
UPDATE: Mueller "deniers" seem to be big on the left side of the aisle. Could they be called "Dearthers" over their continued belief in collusion despite a dearth of evidence?
Of course, even if this epic faceplant of false accusations gives Trump the White House in 2020, did the damage done by the process (and the media in assuming guilt in its coverage) give Democrats the House in 2018?
Perhaps one way to judge that question is to watch Trump's approval rate over the next 6 months. If it goes up--absent any other factors that would raise his approval, if it is possible--doesn't that tell us that the constant hammering of the Russia fantasy dragged Trump--and so the Republicans--down before the 2018 election?
UPDATE: Now it would be good to know how the flimsy accusations got traction for government investigation.
UPDATE: Yes, there could still be collusion that rises to the level of a crime. "No harm, no foul" should not be the guiding philosophy post-Mueller.
UPDATE: I suspect this will go down in history (but not any time soon given the ideological state of the history profession) with the Salem Witch trials and the child care Satanist sex abuse trials as examples of mass hysteria.
UPDATE: Well at least the conspiracy mongers got this:
Nearly half of all Americans still believe President Donald Trump worked with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after Special Counsel Robert Mueller cleared Trump of that allegation.
Americans did feel slightly more positive about Trump after learning the findings of the 22-month investigation into Russian meddling in the election, the national opinion poll released on Tuesday showed.
So there you go. But it is early.
UPDATE: Hah, Austin Bay thinks like me:
Department of Justice has finally received special prosecutor Robert Mueller's long-awaited report. Media Sturm und Drang sensationalism to the contrary, Mueller found no evidence (zip, zero, nada) that President Donald Trump, his erstwhile campaign staff or his relatives "colluded" with Vladimir Putin's Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election and insidiously deny Hillary Clinton the White House. [emphasis added]
But seriously, this false-charge colonoscopy harmed America:
The security agency corruption and media collusion produced a cold, hard totalitarian horror committed in and against America, the world's paramount democracy.
It is important to know whether that is an accurate summary of what happened to our democracy.
Bay thinks the foreign policy damage was contained. Credit Trump's ability to shrug off the campaign without cracking and hyper-focusing on the domestic problem, I suppose.
Obviously, if Trump had colluded with Russia that would have been an important thing to know. But he didn't. And it never made sense that the Russians would want that or that Trump would agree to it.
Now what about the other side's role in this sturm und drang?
