Should we EVER allow the Russians to interfere/attack our elections?

Over the last few days, Trump and his ilk have been emboldened to attack those in positions of power who intend to challenge Attorney General Barr's 4-page whitewash of Special Counsel Mueller's official report.

Do you think it's okay? I don't.

Neither does Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Schiff's response to his colleagues' lame attempt to rebuke him seems to take a similar but more pointed perspective than the Arizona Eagletarian's March 26, 2019 post.

Then there's Speaker Pelosi frankly calling them "scaredy cats."

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia report is more than 300 pages long, it was revealed Thursday, sparking fresh criticism from Democrats arguing that Attorney General William Barr’s four-page summary was gravely inadequate and the full findings must be quickly released.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Barr’s synopsis that cleared President Donald Trump of campaign collusion with Russia and criminal obstruction of the federal probe “condescending” and “arrogant.”

“Mr. Attorney General, we do not need your interpretation,” Pelosi said Thursday. “Show us the report and we’ll come to our own conclusions.” She mocked the administration and Republicans as “scaredy-cats.”

The length of Mueller’s confidential report makes clear that there are substantially more details he and his team have documented in their investigation than Barr disclosed to Congress and the public in his summary. The volume of pages was described Thursday by a Justice Department official and another person familiar with the document.

The last few days have brought up memories of the "blood sport" level of conflict Arizonans saw especially in 2011-2012 as Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission drew the legislative and Congressional district maps and subjected them to public scrutiny.

Those years were followed by a few years of litigation, which notably saw that the AIRC scored victories in EVERY one of the lawsuits Republican interests brought to bear.

Not surprisingly, SCOTUS also heard oral arguments this week in two gerrymandering cases, one in Maryland (drawn by Democratic state lawmakers) and one in North Carolina (drawn by the GOP legislature). Court watchers might be hoping, but seem not to be optimistic that outcomes to limit extreme political bias in redistricting will result.

In the meantime, I'm not at all surprised by intense conflict either surrounding the gerrymandering cases or Russiagate.

Did Mueller "completely and totally exonerate" Trump?

Despite all the credible news reporting to the contrary, the administration of the 45th president of the United States has claimed that he has been completely and totally exonerated by the Mueller Report.





Yet, moments ago, I found this anonymously authored, yet incredibly poignant and salient declaration.*

I don’t know – it’s hard for me to see any U.S. ties to Russia…except for the Roger Stone things

and the Manafort things

and the Cohen things

and the Flynn things

and the Maria Butina / NRA thing

and the NRA campaign contribution thing

and the Tillerson thing

and the Sessions thing

and the Kushner thing

and the Carter Page thing

and the Felix Sater thing

and the Boris Ephsteyn thing

and the Rosneft thing

and the Gazprom thing

and the Sergey Gorkov banker thing

and the Azerbaijan thing

and the “I love Putin” thing

and the Trump, Jr. thing

and the Sergey Kislyak thing

and the Russian Affiliated Interests thing

and the Russian Business Interests thing

and the Emoluments Clause thing

and the Alex Shnaider thing

and the hack of the DNC thing

and the Mike Pence “I don’t know anything” thing

and Trump’s public request to Russia to hack Hillary’s email thing

and the Trump house sale for $100 million at the bottom of the housing bust to the Russian fertilizer king thing

and the Russian fertilizer king’s plane showing up in Concord, NC during Trump rally campaign thing

and the Nunes sudden flight to the White House in the night thing

and the Wilbur Ross with his Cyprus bank thing

and the Trump not releasing his tax returns thing

and the election hacking thing

and the GOP platform change to the Ukraine thing

and the Steele Dossier thing

and the Leninist Bannon thing

and the Sally Yates can’t testify thing

and the Sally Yates firing thing

and the intelligence community’s investigative reports thing

and the thing with Trump reassuring everyone that the Russian connection is all “fake news” thing

and the thing with Trump warning the Russians and Syrians before the bombing thing

and the Trump refusing to provide Flynn's foreign ties documents to Congress thing

and the thing with Flynn's illegal Turkish lobbying being paid for by the Russians thing

and Flynn's illegal lobbying for Russia thing

and the Trump asking Comey for a "loyalty oath" thing

and Trump lying to the world about Comey saying he's not being investigated thing

and the Trump firing Comey thing

and the Trump and his stooges lying to the world about why he fired Comey with three different lies thing

and the Trump hosting Russian foreign minister and ambassador one day after to demonstrate his authoritarian street cred thing

and the finding out that Trump actually floated potential firing of Robert Mueller in June 2017 thing

and the claim by Trump that the Russia investigation is over some unrefunded golf club fees to Robert Mueller thing

and the lying to the American public during the campaign about having no business in Russia thing

and the Ivanka super-duper Moscow hotel spa thing…

So there’s probably nothing. All of this must be normal - just a bunch of separate dots with no connection whatsoever.

* DISCLAIMER: There's more than FIFTY separate dots listed above (and I deleted a few I thought might be dubious). I have NOT fact checked each one. However, many of them are easily documentable with a simple internet search. If any reader believes any of the specific listed points is not commonly and easily a matter of public record, let me know and I will try to check it out.

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The Atlantic also has, in its March 2019 print issue and online now, a story on Kleptocracy is on the Rise in America, modeled after the transition in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.