Patience

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Just like a huge battleship, our ‘Ship of State’ turns very slowly, almost imperceptibly.  And yet, can’t you almost sense the agonizingly slow movement indicating a change of awareness and opinion?

Robert Mueller’s appearance several days ago was the first event in the 70 odd days since his report was delivered to AG Barr that delivered his truth of what the findings were.  Mueller declared, with a precision of words, albeit with a frustrating lack of anger and passion, what he found, and for those who have actually read the report, the simplicity of his truth rings out. 

Barr’s and Trump’s obfuscation withers as the clarity of Mueller cuts through the fog of their efforts to mislead the general public.  The simple facts that Mueller presented in his report and his clarion call to all Americans to be concerned about his findings about Russian attacks on our democracy land with  stone cold reality.  The only problem is it comes very late in the game, but you know what they say, “better late than never”.  I also wish he had been a little less timid in his presentation and not so concerned about 'coloring inside the lines'!

When it comes to his findings about the criminal actions by the President that obstructed justice by trying to discredit Mueller and stop the investigation, Mueller was clear that the Office of Legal Counsel prevented him from coming to a conclusion that crimes have been committed by the President.  The only problem is that he had to use a double negative to say it—way too obtuse for the average Trump supporter.  And now Barr is complaining that Mueller should have said Trump committed crimes directly if he did, and of course according to Barr, he didn’t.   Barr would know that since he took a few hours to write his summary and came to all these conclusions so easily.

The problem with what Barr did and why we now see that it was to the real advantage of Trump, is because Barr’s interpretive summary and verdict that there was no obstruction or collusion, and therefore complete exoneration of Trump sat out there on the airways for over a month by itself.  It had time to sink in without opposition, and was the only perception the country had until he finally released the report.  Do you think that was premeditated?  Had Mueller done his press conference at the very beginning, would we be in the same place right now?

….and where are we really?

If Mueller had not ‘self-shackled’ himself by hiding behind the OLC opinion that a sitting President can not be indicted, it seems clear that he would have indicted Trump for at least 10 incidents of obstruction of justice (which more than 1000 prosecutors have said in a joint written opinion that they would have prosecuted with little fear of losing the case!) 

With AG Barr as Trump’s lap dog, withholding the full report resulted in the mass of Americans who only watch Fox News and get their news from conservative Republican sources having no idea that anything was negative in the Mueller report.  Hearing Mueller state in person what was in his report, and that he was unable to exonerate Trump because of the facts he had uncovered, came as a complete surprise to all those who have not read the report and only listened to Fox News and Barr’s misleading analysis.

Mueller’s entreaty to all of us to READ the damn thing finally broke through.  How many Republicans actually read the report?  We would all be surprised how few legislators have spent the time to read it.

But now, there are more and more who are reading it and finding that it is really scary for lots of reasons.  The Russians did attack our democracy and the Trump administration is still doing little if anything to prevent a repeat performance.  All Trump does is call it a Russian Hoax.  Really?

And Barr is acting less and less like a lawyer every day.  While intimating that Obama and the democrats were ‘spying’ on the Trump campaign without presenting a shred of evidence, he is discussing the investigation in public in an attempt to lead all of us to believe, without any proof, that there was a democratic conspiracy to bring down Trump!   He reminds me of Joe McCarthy with his vague accusations without any proof and his new mission to accuse and harass and disgrace members of his own Justice Department and any other of Trump’s critics and enemies.

How sickening!...and how scary.  It is a short jump to Barr and Trump chasing any of Trump’s enemies or opponents and accusing them of crimes, spying, or whatever without presenting any evidence.  Does that sound like America or more like Turkey, Hungary, the Philippines or a banana republic?

However, I do perceive that the 'ship' is turning.  While Trump continues to obstruct justice by defying subpoenas and refusing to provide any documents that the law requires he produce, the momentum is building slowly but surely to bring him to account.  There are over 50 Democrats now that support opening an impeachment inquiry.  There really is a point where politics is not as important as the survival of our democracy, and we are approaching it.  It remains to be seen whether the servile Republicans have enough integrity to even care about our democracy, however.

Trump is scared.  You can hear it in his voice and watch his frantic attempts to divert our attention.  He is living in his own head where the law is not relevant.  He is trying to evade any and all oversight, just like a dictator would do.  I discovered yesterday that there are those in our government who are planning for the day when Trump will claim that the 2020 election was rigged and he will not surrender his office to whomever beats him.  That revelation came as I was listening to former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson, on Real Time with Bill Maher describe a group of concerned military people who are planning for that eventuality….

The ride is going to get much rougher, folks.  The time is coming for all of us who are truly patriotic and support the Constitution to stand up for what we know is right and true. 

Are YOU ready?