Mueller Report realities

I have long believed that there has been no collusion between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. (Indeed, per links below, no such federal crime called "collusion" even exists.)

So, as we await the Mueller report, here's a summary of thoughts related to it, most of which have been held by my for many moons.

First, Putin's too smart to trust a flighty weathervane like Trump. And, in any case, Michael Cohen testified that no Steele dossier type of blackmail-able information exists. Frosty Douthat has a good roundup.

Second, Russian government spinoffs doing low-dollar meddling to confuse voters (and by social media activities that were both pro-Trump AND anti-Trump) is NOT "collusion." It IS, though, election meddling of some sort. (I know we've done that, too, but this post isn't about twosiderism or whataboutism. It's about where we're at on the pending Mueller Report.)

Third, yes, Trump may be laundering Russian mafiyya $$$ and rubles through his real estate empire, but that doesn't mean that Putin's masterminding the money laundering, let alone doing it for reasons related to Point the First. Again, he's smart enough to stay generally detached on something like that. Beyond that, he's "got his" to the tune of $200 million or something, so he doesn't need (more?) Russian mob money.

Fourth, although Julian Assange is NOT a journalist (he's not, and neither is Edward Snowden; neither have actually worked as journalists in any old or new media outlets), he's not an agent of the Russian Federation, either. BUT, he has LONG left himself open to that charge by not only not cultivating leakers inside Russia, but also not collating known leaks. As reported by Daily Beast, though, another group, Distributed Denial of Service, IS doing that as part of its work. In turn, while Assange continues to camp out at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and it's a situation I don't like, it's also not a situation I cry too big a river about. I digress ...

Fifth, I understand how the 25th Amendment works better than Andrew McCabe.

Sixth, a Democratic Party that has lost two Electoral College votes this century should focus on amending the Constitution, not litigating the past election. You too, sheepdogging Bernie.

Seventh, at the same time, contra ShirtLost DumbShit Haller and many others, I do believe that, per points second and fourth above, there WAS an actual Guccifer 2.0. (Not sure what the likes of Mark Ames and Yasha Levine think on this one and it doesn't matter to me.)

Being known, like others, by my online enemies of sort, like Marcy Wheeler and the rest of the Kossack Dead-End Kids, per this, and other vaguely Donut Twitter types, convinces me of whereof I stand. That said, sadly, Bernie Sanders believes much of this, too, it seems.

Eighth, per Aaron Mate, up through mid-March, Mueller had yet to indict anybody for conspiracy with Russia. (That would be the actual charge, since "collusion" doesn't exist.)

With that all said, I present a great in-depth analysis of where we're at on the Mueller Report. Yes, it's the Washington Examiner. But, per Media Bias Fact Check, while they slant stuff at times, the information / facts are usually solid.

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti largely agrees at Time. And, he says "both sides" (ignoring that there are really more than two sides to the issue) could well be disappointed. That said, the Donut Twitter side has set itself up for its disappointment. As Mariotti notes, there is no such federal crime called "collusion." (That may still be news to Emptywheel, Bmaz and the other Kossack Dead-Enders.)

What we really have, as I see it, is a lot of Donut Twitter wishing criminal law worked like civil law — preponderance of evidence instead of beyond a reasonable doubt. But, that AIN'T the way it works, quite fortunately.