Attorney General Barr gave a Cliff-notes summary of the Mueller report after he reviewed it over the weekend. He concluded that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and there was no obstruction of justice, although the President was not exonerated—whatever that means. Trump crowed that he’s been “totally exonerated”, even though that’s not what the report said. His minions echo that the case is closed, time to move on, nothing to see here—even though the House voted earlier 420-0 to have the full Mueller report come forth. The vast majority of Americans want to see the report, with the caveat that any classified material could be redacted. Barr says he’ll do that, but it may take a few weeks. Democrats want it ASAP.
Trump calls it a witch-hunt. I wonder which hunt it is—one for the truth, or one that will mollify his base? He calls the whole effort “presidential abuse” and that the people who started it are evil, and furthermore there should be an investigation, presumably into Hillary Clinton. He just can’t seem to get over Hillary, or John McCain for that matter, rest his soul. All I know is if there was nothing to hunt, then how did Mueller manage 37 indictments and a half dozen or so that are going to jail? If there was nothing there, why did they lie? In the meantime state’s attorney generals are delving into Trump’s finances, business dealings, and hush money payments. It ain’t over yet, folks.
In the meantime while we were all distracted by Barr’s summary, the administration has decided to not defend the Accountable Care Act (Obamacare) from a Texas judge’s ruling that it is unconstitutional. If successful 21 million will lose their health insurance, and many more will see benefit cutbacks, elimination for pre-existing conditions, and rising co-pays and drug prices. What the Republicans couldn’t do by legislation they hope to accomplish through the courts. Trump says the Republicans will provide great health care, but doesn’t say how. They are big on repeal, but not so clear on replace.
The contours of the 2020 election are beginning to take shape. The herd of Democrats running for president are trying to shape their messaging—go hard left, or drive down the middle? Pundits say they should cut back on bashing Trump and focus on kitchen table issues, or bread and butter issues, or whatever you want to call them. Trump will gin up his base by yelling that Democrats are socialists, that they want to turn the country into Venezuela, and are for open borders. Partisans will retreat to their corners. Some say that Trump could still win the electoral vote while losing the popular vote, a repeat of 2016. Yikes.
All I know is in the meantime our infrastructure is crumbling, our debt is through the roof, fires are burning, floods are flooding, the rich are getting richer, the poor poorer, hate crimes are rising, and politicians are weaponizing gridlock. I could expand the list, but you get the drift. As the Chinese curse goes, we are living in interesting times.
Bad Randall 