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Robert Mueller would only have stuffed the evidence against Trump into today’s Manafort filing if he felt he had no better way to make it public. The absence of that today means Mueller is confident his report on Trump will become public. So let’s stop worrying about that part.
The media spent a year insisting Trump couldn’t be indicted, and Trump could just pardon everyone. This was never true. This week the media is finally admitting these things aren’t true. It was all about scaring you into staying tuned in...
Now that those two ratings-friendly false narratives have worn out their welcome, the media is using some new false narratives to keep you tuned in. They’re even more ridiculous this time around...
Trendy new false narrative 1: “Mueller’s report will end up in a drawer.” Sure, because Mueller is an idiot who hasn’t planned for anything, and doesn’t know how to work around villains. Oh wait, no, Mueller is the prosecutorial genius who outsmarted Enron and John Gotti.
Trendy new false narrative 2: “Mueller might not even find anything on Trump.” The media alone has already unearthed enough dirt on Trump to nail him on dozens of crimes. Mueller surely has more. If there somehow weren’t any dirt on Trump, Mueller would have quit a long time ago.
Too many TV pundits treat political analysis like a soap opera script. They string along one cliffhanger forever until they’ve worn it out, so they let it go and immediately introduce another. It’s all about keeping you tuned in, which often requires inventing fictional suspense.
We can’t afford to fall for this ratings-driven crap and become paralyzed in fear. There’s too much at stake. Of course Mueller’s report will reach the right hands. You want to worry? Ask yourself how that report can end up taking Trump down. But let go of the fictional TV drama.
Mueller just published 800 pages of criminal dirt on Manafort, who’s not even the primary target. Mueller surely has twice that much criminal dirt on Trump. He can bust it out any time he wants. Only reason he’d still be waiting a bit longer is to make it even more bulletproof.
The pessimists, who tremble over imaginary things like Mueller’s report somehow not becoming public, are bad enough. The optimists are just as bad. They think Mueller’s report is a magic wand, and once it’s issued, Trump will immediately fall through a trap door.
If you’ve been paying actual attention to the course of the investigation, you know that no one on either side has any magic wands. Takedowns like this are a grind. They come down to five key factors: leverage, leverage, leverage, leverage, and leverage.
If you want to know how this ends, ask yourself what kind of leverage a smart guy like Mueller, armed with proof of every crime Trump ever committed, has over a brute force bully like Trump who thinks two dimensionally.
Mueller didn’t start farming out federal cases to SDNY because he was lazy. It’s part of his plan. And it’s not a coincidence that New York State is suddenly bringing its first state level charged. These things are all lining up for a reason.
We don’t know what Mueller’s takedown will be, which is great, because it means Trump doesn’t either. But we can already see that it’ll be comprehensive, complex, and designed to leave Trump with zero good options. That’s how you get people to accept a bad outcome for them.
Trump has zero remaining political muscle at this point. Republicans in Congress aren’t going to let him start a war, because they know it would quickly finish him off, and they don’t want to be stuck answering for it. Trump is just sitting there, wishing he had a good plan.
Trump’s last genius plan was to appoint Matt Whitaker and have him reinstate Berman at SDNY. Even an idiot like Whitaker knew that wasn’t possible. Trump apparently thought it was going to magically work. Trump has no idea what he’s doing.
Trump’s appointment of Barr is another random stab. The odds of it getting him anywhere? Tiny. Trump didn’t even know he had no attorney client privilege with White House lawyers. He has no idea how any of this works, and no desire/capacity to learn.
Be vigilant? Of course. Cower in fear that this idiot is somehow going to outsmart Robert Mueller? Come on. Trump is ONLY still in office because the GOP majority protected him for two years, meaning Mueller had to get there the long way. That’s done now. He’s exposed, vulnerable
Also, Mueller isn’t “by the book” no matter how many times the TV pundits repeat that phrase. He’s used creative, aggressive measures to take down Enron and Gotti. He’s not a guy to turn in a report and go home. He always squarely targets the kingpins, and he’s always gotten them
Mueller will take his big swing in X number of days/weeks. Pick a number. Anyone’s guess. You can spend that time fretting over whatever the TV pundits tell you to fret over, or you can spend that time fighting back against Trump’s overall agenda. I hope you choose the latter.
