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Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

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Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Books are my comfort food!

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The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

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Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

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Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

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Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

So many bastards, so little time.

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When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / So Much Winning

So Much Winning

by | 129 Comments

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While i am (impatiently) waiting for a ruling on Trump’s immunity claims from the appeals court, which may not even come today, though I still think it might, let us savor.

🌼

Do you feel like we “waited for Mueller”?  From one perspective, I kind of fell like I did.  Of course I was politically active in the meantime, but for quite some time I thought Mueller would save us.  Mueller did good work, but he most definitely did not save us.

🌼

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

129Comments

  2. 2.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Here’s hoping the jurors of the EJC case bankrupt Trump. Not that he’s not used to that, but it’d be great to having it happen again during the campaign.

  3. 3.

    WaterGirl

    It’s hard to believe that our last So Much Winning post was way back in 2020.  I would have guessed that there would have been 10 or more.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    re: Mueller…I know I personally expected way, way too much from that investigation, as if it was going to be all we needed to put trumpov away for good.

    Then came Bill Barr, and the Barr Cover(Up) Memo to the Mueller Report.

    And our snooze media was clearly not up to the task of calling a spade a spade, or a Russian asset a Russian asset.

    So yeah, Rosenberg’s right on target.

  10. 10.

    Jerry

    In the end, the media didn’t run with Mueller’s conclusions, but instead, they ran with the Republicans’ spin on it.

  11. 11.

    Jerry

    Or, what @Jeffro said before me

    Then came Bill Barr, and the Barr Cover(Up) Memo to the Mueller Report.

    And our snooze media was clearly not up to the task of calling a spade a spade, or a Russian asset a Russian asset.

  12. 12.

    schrodingers_cat

    Trump and more importantly Trumpism is a political problem. So though these cases help us, defeating Trump and Trumpists in an election is the best innoculation against the Orange Fever.

  13. 13.

    Matt McIrvin

    Do you feel like we “waited for Mueller”?

    What can you do about a bad President when there’s an insuperable political obstacle to removing him through impeachment? There was all kinds of fantasizing about constitutional weird tricks, but ultimately if we’re not able or willing to carry out a revolution/civil war ourselves (which is kind of an authoritarian dick move in itself unless you’re REALLY sure you have an overwhelming majority), it’s down to waiting him out and then carrying out a political campaign.

    But now, this time, he’s not President and it IS an election year.

  14. 14.

    Lapassionara

    I am still waiting for Mueller. I thought at the time that he had not finished his work, and that Barr closed down his investigation before it was done, a more sophisticated Saturday night massacre. I thought his report was ok, but not complete, and I thought Barr’s completely inaccurate spin on the report got the kind of headlines that a real perspective of the actual words on the page of Mueller’s report should have gotten.

    Then Trump started commuting sentences and pardoning perpetrators. So, I’m still waiting for Justice to be done to the people who interfered on behalf of Trump in the 2016 election.

  15. 15.

    mvr

    I was thinking about the issue that underlies the judge’s statement just this morning. Collateral estoppel is a legal principle that basically says that when the same parties contest the same facts as had earlier been decided in the same venue with the same burden of proof the findings of fact from the first proceeding govern the second.  I think that explains why the judge instructed the jurors as they did.

  16. 16.

    MattM

    Do you feel like we “waited for Mueller”?

    I mean, we’re still referencing the grifter “Mueller She Wrote” account, so…yeah, we might’ve put too much stock in that one.

  17. 17.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    “I’m still waiting for Justice to be done to the people who interfered on behalf of Trump in the 2016 election.”

     

    That’ll happen when Putin has an “accidental” tumble down a staircase in the Kremlin, impaling his head on an ice-ax that he was inexplicably carrying, while managing to shoot himself in the back with an AK-47, pausing only twice to reload.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    I blame the media for credulously swallowing Barr’s spin, but Mueller isn’t blameless. He did good work. But then he stood by and watched as his personal friend Barr dug a hole, dropped Mueller’s good work into it and buried it.

  22. 22.

    JoyceH

    I think I’d be willing to let 2016 go, so long as Trump’s co-conspirators in 2020, ALL of them, get what they deserve.

  23. 23.

    Salty Sam .

    @WaterGirl:   It’s hard to believe that our last So Much Winning post was way back in 2020.  I would have guessed that there would have been 10 or more.

    Still not tired…

  25. 25.

    patrick II

    @TheOtherHank:

    Two were about to be personal  Once a Russian overpaid for a Florida house by about $75 million and pulled his irons out of the fire.  A second time he was going to lose everything he started a new company, went public, and then moved all of his bad assets into it.  The stock started reasonably high because of the name attached to it but then tanked and stock owners took the hit.

  26. 26.

    cain

    @Jeffro: We did expect a lot – and if you look back and all the memes that were generated. You just feel so meh about it all.

    I’m sure Mueller himself was feeling the same thing with all that projected hope on him.

  29. 29.

    catclub

    @Betty Cracker: This. Mueller could have written: “There is policy that the sitting president cannot be indicted, but from the facts obtained, any other person involved in this would be.”

     

    and I could have a pony.

  33. 33.

    Shalimar

    Mueller’s team did good work with the people they did prosecute and with putting together all the evidence they did gather into a report we could all see.  History will view Trump much worse than he is viewed by his supporters, party, and the media right now.  But also, the end result of everything Mueller did was damned near nothing.  That really sucked.  No one else did their jobs.

  34. 34.

    TBone

    “Success is not measured by grand triumphs alone but by the small victories that lead us there.” – Unknown

  38. 38.

    japa21

    @WaterGirl:

     

    It’s hard to believe that our last So Much Winning post was way back in 2020.

    I seem to remember several posts referencing “winning” in the title, such as “Are you tired of winning, yet?” Or others similar.

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    @Alison Rose: @narya:  That link does not do anything for me other than to think it’s written by someone who has a grudge against Alison Gill.  It looks like a smear to me, very short on facts, long on innuendo..

    Shorter at the link from Alison Rose: I don’t like Alison Gill and I don’t believe a word she says.

    Alison Gill does have a lawsuit pending, I believe, related to unlawful termination.

  42. 42.

    Eduardo

    @Alison Rose: Damn.   Thank you for warning folks not to get scammed.

    I see her in my Twitter feed a lot.  And also a very optimistic guy who was always predicting  with 100% confidence Trump was going to jail.  Sometimes I get a little BS vibe from him despite the fact that his predictions are music to my ears.  I haven’t seen him in a while.

  43. 43.

    Jackie

    Score exactly ONE for Nikki!

    Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley earned a small victory on Monday night, ending Donald Trump’s chances at a 99-county sweep of the state on caucus night, the nation’s first action of the 2024 election season.
    Haley snuck by Trump by a single tally in Johnson County, earning 1,271 votes (35.5 percent) in what is Trump’s only county loss. Former president Trump garnered 1,270 votes, according to preliminary results from the state GOP.

    https://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/local/2024/01/15/iowa-caucus-results-nikki-haley-donald-trump-johnson-county-iowa-city/72238563007/

    The article is behind a paywall, but the snippet I was allowed to copy/paste says enough!

    TIFG will DEMAND a recount and personally call “whoever’s in charge” to find the TWO votes needed…

  44. 44.

    MattM

    @WaterGirl: Documented history of her lying about all manner of things, from her service record to her grandfather’s service record, to the circumstances of her leaving her job at the VA.

  45. 45.

    Alison Rose

    @WaterGirl: Obviously I can’t say what’s true and what’s not, although I do think that Gill running multiple GFMs while also running a seemingly lucrative podcast is weird to me, and it definitely sounds like she’s played with the truth regarding her family’s military history, which is kind of weird.

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    @Jay: No she didn’t.  What I saw was innuendo at the link; it sure looks to me like someone holding a grudge.  Also, taking down most of the “evidence”, that doesn’t instill confidence.  Looks to me like the person that was linked to got called on her bullshit and took down a bunch of stuff.

  49. 49.

    TBone

    @WaterGirl: I feel that way about the allegations of scandal re: Fani Willis.  I haven’t seen any evidence (although I’m not sure there is none).

  54. 54.

    Almost Retired

    @TBone: Gill’s lawsuit does focus on retaliation as well as disability discrimination.  Her young attorney went to law school with my oldest son.

  56. 56.

    Jay

    @WaterGirl:

    Alison Gill does have a lawsuit pending, I believe, related to unlawful termination.

    SAN DIEGO (CN) — The host of the popular podcast “Mueller, She Wrote” is suing her former employer, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the subject of her podcast, former President Donald Trump, claiming the VA retaliated after learning she was the anonymous voice behind critiques of Trump and the investigation into his links to Russian officials.

    Allison Gill filed the lawsuit Monday in San Diego federal court, naming Trump as an individual, as well as former Secretary of the Veterans Administration Robert L. Wilkie.

    Gill, a military veteran, began hosting the show in 2017. As the name hints, it centered on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. At the time, Gill worked for the VA as a liaison to the Department of Defense in California.

    https://www.courthousenews.com/host-of-mueller-she-wrote-podcast-sues-va-donald-trump-for-retaliation/

    October, 2023.

    We will see if this goes anywhere.

  59. 59.

    gene108

    There’s a lot more information easily available documenting Trump’s awfulness, like all the J6 footage, than was known about the 2016 Russian interference, when Mueller started.

    I don’t think the Jack Smith investigation is similar.

    Also, Democrats have been pointing out how awful Trump is since 2016.

  60. 60.

    smith

    So TFG arranged for his social media site to continue defaming E. Jean Carroll as soon as the trial started today. Apparently there are dozens of posts, many quite vile, and many repeating statements already found to be defamatory. If there are any lawyers here I wonder if you can tell us what recourse a victim has in a case like this, other than filing yet another defamation case.

    Giuliani did the same to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss immediately after the verdict in their case, and since there’s no way in hell he can pay that one it seems he can just keep defaming them with impunity. Is there a possibility of a contempt of court finding that could shut these monsters up, or do their victims just have to face a lifetime of defamation by bad actors with big megaphones?

  61. 61.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Alison Rose:

    Is there anything Trump does without reckless disregard? 

    No – including winning (read: cheating) an election.  Remember him and the Third Lady being pouty brats?

  62. 62.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, … TheHill.com:

    Top tax writers in Congress announced a deal Tuesday morning to beef up the child tax credit (CTC) and reinstate business deductions that were taken away to pay for the reduction of the corporate tax rate in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

    The CTC expansion would increase the maximum credit per child to $2,000 from $1,600 through 2025 while restoring business deductions for research and development costs, interest payments and capital investments.

    The deal also has provisions on increasing the low-income housing tax credit and a carve-out for Taiwanese companies following an effort by the U.S. to reshore segments of the high-end semiconductor industry, much of which is based there.

    To pay for the $80 billion deal, tax writers want to nix the employment retention tax credit, which they say has been aggressively marketed within the tax industry and has been a locus of fraudulent business activity.

    […]

    Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said the proposal could help as many as 15 million children who are close to the poverty line and would increase the stock of low-income housing across the country.

    […]

    “Once the proposal is fully in effect in 2025, it would lift some half a million children or more above the poverty line and make about 5 million more children less poor,” the left-leaning nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities wrote in an analysis.

    “This proposal would benefit more than 80 percent of the 19 million children who get a partial credit or none at all because their families’ incomes are too low.”

    Sounds like a decent compromise.

    If it gets through the House, it might be an indication that the bomb-throwers are losing power. Or, maybe not.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  64. 64.

    gene108

    @catclub:

    Mueller could have written: “There is policy that the sitting president cannot be indicted, but from the facts obtained, any other person involved in this would be.”

    Stone, Mike Flynn, Papodapolus, and few others were found guilty of something either relating to Russia or as part of a coverup (lying to the FBI).

    Trump commuted or pardoned these accomplices on his way out.

  67. 67.

    JPL

    @TBone:  since Gill had written unkindly about trump, they wanted to force her out.  Moving was one way, which is why she is suing.   I don’t know if she has a case or not, but some of which is being spread is bull.  imo

  70. 70.

    Shalimar

    @Jay: There is also a lawsuit against Gill for discrimination from a former podcast employee.

    She started a GoFundMe because her cat ran away.  How does getting money from strangers even help get the cat back?  It’s all smoke, no fire, but she seems really willing to raise money from any source possible based on any pretense she can think of.

  72. 72.

    rikyrah

     

    Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) posted at 8:41 AM on Mon, Jan 15, 2024:
    Pundits: Trump voters support him because they’ve lost faith in meritocracy/our institutions

    Trump voters: Actually, we agree with him that immigrants are poisoning our blood and we like his promise to prosecute our enemies without cause

    Pundits: It’s the meritocracy, right? https://t.co/hyKT41Kc6c
    (https://x.com/GregTSargent/status/1746905520785502337?t=s84wYDBpOhz3PWPtYQc47Q&s=03)

  76. 76.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: I disagree. Mueller read a statement at a news conference AFTER Barr buried his report with a wildly misleading four-page summary that claimed it exonerated Trump. Mueller said he believed Barr’s decisions about the report were made “in good faith,” which is bullshit.

    Mueller did the report by the book, and I give him credit for that. But then he prioritized protecting the institution and his personal friend Barr above a vital truth that citizens urgently needed to know. He was probably the most honorable Republican available for the job, but, as always, there are limits to Republican integrity.

  77. 77.

    Gretchen

    @Jerry @WaterGirl:That column attacking Allison Gill has some exagérations/mis-statements. It says she’s lying about being fired. Trump got a lot of civil servants to quit by moving their offices. Because of civil service protections, you just can’t fire them, but you can make their jobs so bad they leave. He moved some Dept of Agriculture offices from DC to Kansas City, and half of the employees quit rather than move. It was a cynical ploy to get to his goal of gutting the civil service. Allison was told she had to move from San Diego to DC to keep her job. She quit and is suing about the circumstances.

    I heard the podcasts just before she fired her cohost. The cohost had been good, but the last few before she was fired she was obviously high, admitted it, and wasn’t a coherent contributor.

    The column says if your grandfather died in WWII, how are you even here? My sister was conceived just before my dad left. If he hadn’t come back, her kids would still be here. And remember we all have two grandfathers.

    Considering the distortions the writer made that I know are incorrect, I don’t trust her about anything else she says.

  80. 80.

    evodevo

    @Matt McIrvin: Ah, yes…I well remember Fitzmas, which is why I was skeptical about the Mueller thing…and when it dragged on and he kept fencing off various avenues of evidence, I figured it was going to end in a fizzle…

  82. 82.

    Alison Rose

    @Gretchen: I didn’t see her posts so I don’t know if she makes clear that these are different grandfathers, but what I did see is that her mother was born after the war and she has a photo with her grandpa in 1995. If it were clear she’s referencing two different men, then I don’t think people would call that out

    ETA for me the fundraising is the red flag. Her podcast seems to be highly-regarded and popular, meaning it’s likely making pretty good money from sponsorships, ads, etc. Yet she’s running 5-6 GFMs for things like “help me find my cat”. Again, I’m not making any concrete pronouncements, but there are things that rub me the wrong way.

  83. 83.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Wasn’t it something like a week ago that Biden had decent polling leads in a bunch of swing states?  Now he’s suddenly underwater by around 10 points??

    Polls are noise now.

    Someone made a point a day or few ago that the Reagan / Carter 1980 popular vote blowout result was less than 10% points (9.8%).  Polling now that shows similar or larger differences between Biden and TIFG – especially with TIFG in the lead – are not credible (Biden won the popular vote by 4.4% points in 2020).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  86. 86.

    Jay

    @Shalimar:

    Right now, it’s a he said/she said.

    There is a griftyness/truthyness vibe going on. If the substack is really making $600k a year, that’s in an even split, $200k per host.

    Why would you need additional GoFundMe’s?

    There is a real Shawn King vibe there.

  87. 87.

    Gretchen

    @Jay: where do you get the figure that the podcast was making $600K a year? That seems highly unlikely. The cohost was fired several years ago, and I don’t think even the top podcasts like Pod Save America were making that kind of money in 2017. And as I said, the cohost should have been fired. She was goofily high for the last few podcasts and wasn’t contributing.

  88. 88.

    BC in Illinois

    @rikyrah:

    They keep  on telling us what they intend to do😒😒

    Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) posted at 1:01 PM on Tue, Jan 16, 2024:

    Trump surrogate Marjorie Taylor Greene says she “can’t wait to see” Trump enact his plan of mass detention camps for immigrants, rounding up millions of Latinos

    BidenHarrisHQ on Threads:

    La representante de Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, dice que “no puede esperar a ver” a Trump implementar sus planes de inmigración de campos de detención masiva para inmigrantes, acorralando a millones de latinos.

  89. 89.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Anoniminous:  to the extent that Biden’s full throated defense of Israel is swaying votes at all, it’s no worse than a wash because the 65+ crowd are completely behind it, and unlike the 18-24-year-olds posting how much they heart Hamas, seniors vote.

    Those numbers will revert to the mean once the campaigns rev up in earnest and emphasize women’s rights and women’s healthcare.  Democrats trying to pursue the mushy middle on abortion will lose, though.

  90. 90.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Bobby Thomson: speaking of which, notice how I-P has virtually dropped out of the public discourse?  Vlad’s trolls must have their hands full with the Republican primaries.

  91. 91.

    p.a.

    @Baud: Medicare drugs?

    Us olds & our pocketbook issues.

    I turn 65 this year, and my medical “choose us CHOOSE US” snail mail is ramping up.

  93. 93.

    West of the Rockies

    I think we put too much faith in Mueller out of naivete.  We believed Republicans might still act with integrity (not just a handful of them). We believed an AG (Barr) would be forthright and forthcoming.  We thought the MSM would be more diligent.

    I think we know better now.

  94. 94.

    cain

    @BC in Illinois: I hope we are increasing out outreach to latinos of all background in states – they are a growing demographic and we need to be blasting all over spanish language channels.

    I get the impression at least from places like Florida that we don’t have the same outreach to Latinos that the GOP has.

  95. 95.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Bobby Thomson:

    and unlike the 18-24-year-olds posting how much they heart Hamas, seniors vote.

    Unfair, in my opinion. But there is a huge generational split on this to the extent that people appalled by Biden’s material support for Israel don’t even comprehend that anyone in the Democratic base might be on the other side.

    (Personally, I don’t like the situation but I do recognize that it exists.)

  97. 97.

    cain

    @West of the Rockies:

    I think we put too much faith in Mueller out of naivete.  We believed Republicans might still act with integrity (not just a handful of them). We believed an AG (Barr) would be forthright and forthcoming.  We thought the MSM would be more diligent.

    I don’t recall having any belief in Barr. Barr came in after Mueller was working on it. He was described as a ‘hatchet man’. Nobody trusted that guy.

  98. 98.

    Jay

    @Gretchen:

    There have always been 3 cohosts on the podcast.

    Dana Goldberg and  Aimee Carrero are the current co-hosts.

    If the claimed Substack subscribers count and price is accurate, then that’s $600K a year for the Substack, not including advertising or income from the pod cast.

  100. 100.

    vbreakwater

    Lurker here. There is much gnashing of teeth over the Iowa results, but keep in mind the following when contemplating doom:

    Iowa Population – 3.1 Million

    Iowa Registered Republicans – 720K

    Percentage who voted – 15%

    TFG’s Share – 56K

    In other words, not a representative sample of the electorate.

    Cheers!

  101. 101.

    Gretchen

    @Alison Rose: If someone tells me a bunch of things, and I know half of what they say is a lie, I don’t believe the other half without triple—checking. I listened to the early podcasts. There were no Patreon, advertisers or sub stacks back then. It was a kitchen-table effort while she still worked at the VA, and she obviously put a lot of work into it without financial gain. There was a fundraiser when her cat got cancer, kind of like we do at Balloon Juice.  I don’t remember any others. It sounds like she’s turned it into a successful business 7 years later, but that doesn’t say anything about the start of it.  This person obviously has a grudge, took a few facts and made up a bunch of attacks based on that.

  104. 104.

    RevRick

    @vbreakwater: 109,000 votes is about average for the GOP Iowa caucus. Caucuses are never representative, because only activists turn out. Which is why Iowa Democrats have shifted to mail-in ballots.

  105. 105.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Gretchen: Also, who cares?  Gill’s podcast, Jack, is really good at what it does.  She gives updates on reporting (by other people) on the various Trump trials and gets Andrew McCabe, Ryan Goodman, Peter Strzok and several other former FBI, US Attorneys, CIPA experts etc., to explain it all and give context for listeners outside of those fields.  All of them have excellent reputations (as far as I know) and seem to really know their shit on these matters.  Am I supposed to believe they are all lying too? Honestly, I don’t really care if AG is a “grifter” because I don’t send her my money.  I couldn’t care less if she lied about her family history and/or had a messy divorce.  It really has nothing to do with her work now, the work that I actually click on.  None of it gives me any reason to doubt the things she talks about, which are usually things that were already reported by reputable journalists, so she’s not making original claims.  She doesn’t pretend to have some sort of inside information or a magic solution to the problem of Trump and always clarifies that she is not an attorney.  She takes a cautiously optimistic approach to the Trump trials and resists jumping on the bandwagon to constantly bash Garland/DOJ.  So what’s the big problem?  Even when it comes to Mueller, aside from the name of her Twitter handle, I don’t think she ever promoted outrageous/naive notions of what would ultimately happen as a result of the Mueller Investigation.  I don’t think she ever predicted that Trump would be locked up while in office or anything silly like that.  She followed the investigation closely and tweeted out the numerous, damning things that it found (and there were many).  But I fail to see why some people have such a grudge against her.  It’s weird.  I see people whine about her being a “peddling hope” and I just don’t get it.  She predicts a high possibility of convictions for Trump but always with the caveat of “you never know with a jury” and is reasonably cautious in the reality that he may never serve actual prison time.  Convictions for Trump, especially for the documents case, ARE quite likely.  That’s the consensus of a ton of legal analysts and former Federal Prosecutors.  That’s a realistic outlook based on the evidence, not some rose-colored fantasy.  I don’t even know what the “hope” is that Gill supposedly peddles.  I listen to her all the time and I never walk away thinking convictions and imprisonment are somehow guaranteed.  I’m not stupid.  Nor are most of her listeners.

  107. 107.

    Shalimar

    @Gretchen: That is an excellent point.  Where the GoFundMes were on the timeline does matter as to whether she was cash-strapped then.  If people enjoy the podcast they should continue listening to it and ignore drama they don’t need to know.  That Patreon income is based on how much people enjoy her work.  She doesn’t need small-time fundraisers now and i assume no longer does them.

    edit: i have never listened and probably won’t start now, so i have no investment one way or another in whether she’s trustworthy

  108. 108.

    RevRick

    @Jay: He is full-throated in defense of Israel’s right to exist. He is definitely not full-throated in defense of Netanyahu or military tactics that create mass civilian casualties or that limit humanitarian relief.

    What Biden and his team understand is how tragic the situation is, and that the only viable long-term solution involves an Israel without Netanyahu and some sort of two-state policy.

  109. 109.

    dirge

    @catclub: Mueller could have written: “There is policy that the sitting president cannot be indicted, but from the facts obtained, any other person involved in this would be.”

    There’s also policy against making accusations without an indictment (exceptions may apply, cf. Clinton, H.).  That’s some catch, that Catch-22.

    I recall he’d previously been hired for some private sector investigation that concluded with “clearly wrongdoing here, but can’t be sure whose fault, so 🤷‍♂️.”  Made me worry at the time that maybe his real profession was “credible face of inconclusive investigations.”  Still can’t rule that out, but on balance I don’t think so.

    What we can be certain of is that Barr, et. al. were tying him in knots with the OLC memo, and every other thread of policy and precedent they could find or invent.  I think that’s sufficient explanation for the report’s circumlocution and equivocation.  I suspect he went as far as he could without overtly breaking the bullshit rules imposed on him.  Barr was probably pretty mad the report managed to communicate anything at all.

    So I don’t think Mueller could have written what you suggest, except in a letter explaining his resignation in protest.  Maybe he should have done that, but I don’t know if it would have turned out better.

  110. 110.

    RevRick

    @vbreakwater: Iowa probably never would have achieved its outsized importance if it hadn’t been for Carter’s improbable win in ‘76, which propelled him to the nomination.

  111. 111.

    frosty

    @RevRick: Exactly. We never heard of Iowa before his campaign team ID’d it as an early chance to get the lead. I for one would be happy to never hear about Iowa caucuses again.

  112. 112.

    Jeffro

    @cain: We did expect a lot – and if you look back and all the memes that were generated. You just feel so meh about it all.

    truth.

    but you know what?  The non-impact of the Mueller report is literally the only thing I’ve gotten seriously wrong (political prediction-wise) over the past 8 years.

    living in reality and keeping my cable TV news turned off = success!   =)

  113. 113.

    hitchhiker

    @Gretchen:

    Exactly how I read it. AG is currently hosting two more podcasts, one with Andy McCabe and the other with Pete Strzok. Both are worth the time, if only because McCabe and Strzok have so much institutional knowledge about how things work at DOJ.

    I’ve never paid her a dime for anything, and she’s been informing my understanding of things very clearly for years, so it’s annoying to hear the word “grift” associated with her. That site with “receipts” has the flavor of a big fat grudge; it’s not the work of someone who expects to be fact-checked.

  114. 114.

    Gravenstone

    @geg6: Likely has seen assorted greatest hits about how Team Trump has been abusing various Court staff and wants zero part in such shenanigans for their Court.

  115. 115.

    pajaro

    @smith:

    If Trump is defaming Carrol on social media as the jury is being seated, the posts can be used as evidence against him in the defamation case.  He’s already been found to have sexually abused her–if he posts sexist crap and won’t stop defaming her, the plaintiffs can admit the posts as evidence for why a larger punitive damage award is needed to convince him try to stop.  Giuliani’s comments about the Georgia election workers on the first day of his defamation trial were literally replayed to the jurors at the beginning of the plaintiff’s summation to show the need for a hefty damage award in his defamation case.  Trump may be getting a kick out of what he’s doing, but it may be costing him millions to do it.

  117. 117.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @hitchhiker: I can’t help note that many (though #NotAll) of the people who seem to get really bent out of shape about Gill and call her a “grifter”, are people who predicted: DOJ won’t have the guts to investigate Trump and even if they do, Trump will never be indicted etc.  In other words: DOJ Doomsayers, whereas Gill was a pretty firm and vocal believer from the outset that DOJ would investigate Trump (and likely was already), and that he’d end up getting indicted.  On those two incredibly important questions (that we all talked about endlessly), she was right and they were wrong.  And I think that is part of what fuels their animosity towards her.

  118. 118.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @dirge: Yeah I remember the SistersInLaw or some other legal podcast discussing this and emphasizing that we all, none of us, want to live in a world where DOJ announces that people are guilty of crimes without a fair trial.  That would be a recipe for a disaster for protecting the rights of the accused and the presumption of innocence.  For all his flaws, Comey was careful to clarify that Hillary did NOT break any laws.  The problem is he added the bullshit about wrongdoing, giving the appearance of guilt and making that the narrative for a Media (and Electorate frankly) that was already drunk on Hillary-bashing and wanted just one more drink.

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Some people push the “it will never happen” or “it’s been too slow” or whatever.

    That’s where some of those accusations of “hope” come in.  Alison Gill does push back on that stuff.  With facts.  All the time.

    • Are those people pushing that sense of hopelessness because they are pessimists?
    • Because they prefer low expectations so they can’t be disappointed?
    • Because they have an agenda and don’t want people to believe in the system?
    • Because they have an agenda and deliberately set out to discourage people so they don’t fight for the outcome they want?
    • Because they believed disinformation somewhere along the line?
    • Because they believed the crap the media pummels us with day after day?

    I’m sure there are people in all those categories.

    Back to Alison Gill, she gets a lot of angry white males attacking her a lot.  In addition to everything you wrote, she seems to have all the right enemies.

  122. 122.

    mrmoshpotato

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    For all his flaws, Comey was careful to clarify that Hillary did NOT break any laws. The problem is he added the bullshit about wrongdoing, giving the appearance of guilt and making that the narrative for a Media (and Electorate frankly) that was already drunk on Hillary-bashing and wanted just one more drink. 

    Well put.

  124. 124.

    Gretchen

    @Jay: there were 3 cohosts in the beginning. Jalessa got fired because she showed up stoned several times and made the show hard to listen to with her stoned ramblings. Gill hired a replacement  then and it got much better. At the time there was no Patreon or sub stack or advertisers, so there wasn’t a big pot of money that Jaleesa was denied, and the show never would have gotten so successful if they’d kept her on.

  125. 125.

    hoppie

    @WaterGirl: In the age-old graduate school argument about the importance of the artist or whether the work stands on its own, I am firmly on the  work-stands  side.  Evaluate what is said, not the sayer.  Works here.

  126. 126.

    Quadrillipede

    @vbreakwater: Iowa Registered Republicans – 720K

    Percentage who voted – 15%

    TFG’s Share – 56K

    7.78% of the total vote. Bigly huuuuuuuuge vote share!

  127. 127.

    NobodySpecial

    For all his flaws, Comey was careful to clarify that Hillary did NOT break any laws.  The problem is he added the bullshit about wrongdoing, giving the appearance of guilt and making that the narrative for a Media (and Electorate frankly) that was already drunk on Hillary-bashing and wanted just one more drink.

    Utter BS. Comey knew exactly what he was doing, knew the line he danced up to, and knew how his words would be perceived. He just wanted deniability in case it didn’t sink Clinton completely.

  128. 128.

    MaryMac

    @cain: Don’t forget that Barr and  his father were connected to Epstein. (I know you know that but I had to say it.)

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