Rebane's Ruminations
April 2019
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George Rebane

The long-awaited report from special counsel Robert Mueller has turned out to be a disappointment on all counts to all sides.  The following summarize my initial take on it.

  1. From a legal perspective, the report is an iconic nothing-burger. A 400-page embarrassment that documents the failure to conclude anything definite about the commissioned purpose for the drawn-out investigation.  It is a collection of legal pabulum as a CYA disguise for spending tens of millions over two years to no avail.
  2. From the gitgo the Mueller investigation was an obviously composed effort to nail the president and derail his administration. The composition of the investigative team and its flailing, off-the-mark, subsequent indictments gave evidence that it really was a desperate witch hunt which had to fire off a few legal pyrotechnics now and then to keep the effort looking credible to the light thinkers.
  3. From a political perspective, the report is a success. Since there was no credible prosecutorial evidence for either ‘collusion’ or ‘obstruction’, the investigation’s redoubt terminus was always to deliver a product that would dissemble its conclusions so as to invite and enable follow-on probes which the Democrats took every opportunity to specify during the 22-month fiasco.  Team Muller got its marching orders early and often from the Left and its lamestream.
  4. President Trump and his administration have been isolated, perhaps, like no other administration in our history. The Dems could never accept the election results, and the Repubs have carried on a feckless relationship with a president who obviously was not their first choice from their retinue of available candidates.  And Trump’s incurable foot-in-mouth disease did not endear him to anyone in the Washington political establishment.  Mueller’s investigation was drawn out for the obvious collateral damage it was inflicting by hobbling and diverting Team Trump from governing.
  5. Mueller’s work has also served 1) to firmly entrench the public’s longstanding opinion of the dodgy legal profession and our convoluted and corrupt justice system in which it operates, and 2) to highlight and further widen our country’s ideological divide. The report’s dearth of evidence and painfully wordsmithed syntax made sure that it would change no minds already secure in their beliefs about Trump’s guilt or innocence.  All sides can now put their own particular spin on it, and never look back.

WSJ Washington columnist Kim Strassel adds more meat to these points in her ‘Mueller’s Report Speaks Volumes’.

[20apr19 update]  Upon reflection on Volume 2 of the report dealing with obstruction, it strikes me as more than utter bullshit that would be below the standards of any other profession other than those populated mostly by sleazebag lawyers.  I add point #6.

  1. “… while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” A little thought immediately causes one to ask, ‘is there ANY investigation that cannot have such a codicil appended to its conclusion, should the investigator desire to leave a cloud over the individual investigated without the finding of any illegality or indictable criminality??’ To conclude with such an unnecessary assertion is an act of desperation which confirms that the investigation was carried out with an agenda unfulfilled.  Such a dangling innuendo strongly implies that guilt could yet be uncovered with more effort, and forces the so accused into having to prove his own innocence – not exactly the way our system of jurisprudence was intended to operate.  (That is one of the many reasons I assess our judicial system to be invitingly corrupt.)

In Mueller’s case he was not able to indict someone for not obstructing an unobstructed investigation that terminated without finding any evidence of an indictable crime.  About that the Dems are pissed to the gills, and will now do everything to correct the situation.  Go figger.

Posted in , , ,

316 responses to “The Mueller Report – some early takes (updated 20apr19)”

  1. Scott O Avatar

    P.E. at 1:14 – “…delusional optimism about Trump that the RR’s embrace.”
    Oh, let’s see…
    Trump wins the election.
    So I’m happy that Hilary didn’t.
    Paul calls me delusional.
    Despite Paul’s constant certainties that Trump will be gone ‘soon’, Trump is still POTUS.
    I note that fact.
    And once again, Paul calls me delusional.
    So – where or what is my delusion?
    If we count up all the times Paul declares that Trump can never be POTUS or the number of times that he declares that Trump won’t last long, it seems pretty darn clear who’s delusional.
    But of course he doesn’t see it.
    That’s the definition of some one who is delusional.

    Like

  2. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Six months before Trump won the election, Paul was saying to me that the “pubbies” would be crushed so completely that good people would have to work to bring them back into society, to let them feel useful again.
    Remember those days of blissful delusional ignorance, Paul?

    Like

  3. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    George
    Other than the Daily Caller what is the source of this information? Besides I don’t claim to share Schiffs ethics on this matter as you apparently do.
    Gregory the Pubbers lost 40 seats in the House, several Governors races and disappeared in California. More to come next election.

    Like

  4. Ozz Avatar
    Ozz

    Gregory 5:49
    Paul was talking about California. He was, and is, correct.
    The country will take a bit longer, but disgust with Trump is climbing by leaps and bounds. Character will be a defining factor in the next elections, and aided by Trump’s legacy we will speed forward on the path toward a more perfect union.

    Like

  5. Scott O Avatar

    Ooooze – “…but disgust with Trump is climbing by leaps and bounds.”
    The last time I heard that was right before the last presidential election.

    Like

  6. Paul Emery Avatar

    Scott
    All polls show that Trump has declined since then. He has lost 17 on Rasmussen since Jan 2017 as I have documented earlier in this post.

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  7. Scott O Avatar

    Paul – You have ‘documented’ a constant drop in the polls of Trump for months on end.
    You might take note that he is still in office and the country is doing better than when Obummer was in office – particularly among non-Anglos.
    Is that what is actually bothering you?

    Like

  8. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Scott O | 22 April 2019 at 06:40 PM
    Hmmm……sounds like Steve…….err “Ozz” has a case of Pauline Kael Syndrome….nobody he knows voted for Trump.

    Like

  9. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    The GOP has disappeared in California? Let me check… hmmm, no, Audrey Denney definitely lost badly in her Congressional run, to LaMalfa.
    Denney is running again… A glutton for punishment… I guess she had more fun as a Congressional candidate than as a remote “learning designer” for a tiny company headquartered in a house in the suburbs of Lincoln NE.
    The GOP had to be asleep at the wheel for them to not challenge Denney’s claim for her occupation listing on the ballot as a Farmer and educator, since she didn’t have a farm to farm or a classroom to teach in. She is a “learning designer” and she should explain to voters what that is.
    She also called for semiautomatic guns to be banned in California and the country. Good luck with that.

    Like

  10. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    The putin party parrot has noting new to add beyond dementia. Sad decline to watch. Time to hand off the device….
    😉

    Like

  11. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    The GOP lost 40 seats in the House with the titular head of the party tied down by the Lilliputians with a bogus investigation in an election cycle that historically is a loser… Just ask Bill Clinton about his party losing the House to the Gingrich revolution. Or Obama losing his House two years into his first term.
    “Paul was talking about California. He was, and is, correct.” -Ozzie
    Paul is and was wrong.

    Like

  12. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Fish 703pm
    No, Ozz is sounding a lot like Mandersonation, aka Michael P. Anderson, as of late. A very mean fellow, given to tantrums and threats.

    Like

  13. Paul Emery Avatar

    More bad polling news for Trump-all time lows…
    “President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped 5 points, equaling his presidency’s low-water mark, since last week’s release of the special counsel report into the 2016 election, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.
    Despite his sinking poll numbers, however, there is little support for removing Trump through the impeachment process, the poll shows.
    Only 39 percent of voters surveyed in the new poll, which was conducted Friday through Sunday, approve of the job Trump is doing as president. That is down from 44 percent last week and ties Trump’s lowest-ever approval rating in POLITICO/Morning Consult polling — a 39 percent rating in mid-August 2017, in the wake of violence in Charlottesville, Va.”
    https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/22/trump-approval-mueller-report-1286386

    Like

  14. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Paul Emery | 22 April 2019 at 07:46 PM
    Ok Punch…..whatever you say. I mean you are so rarely wrong about these things…….

    Like

  15. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Not only boorish but boring @746! Squawk! Stomp feet and hold breath…. why, why, why……
    😉

    Like

  16. George Rebane Avatar

    I wonder who all are the believers in the long-term prediction reliability of public opinion polls, other than PaulE of course.

    Like

  17. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Gregory | 22 April 2019 at 07:37 PM
    You think? Not as rage-alicious as I grew accustomed to from Michael. Plenty smug, pedantic and self-satisfied enough to be Steve.

    Like

  18. Paul Emery Avatar

    George
    You’d better believe that Trumps and the Republican Pollsters are paying close attention to the polling trends. That’s what they do, it’s their job.

    Like

  19. fish Avatar
    fish

    ”You’d better believe that Trumps and the Republican Pollsters are paying close attention to the polling trends. That’s what they do, it’s their job.”
    Yeah George! They get paid to know that polls a year and a half before the election are as useless as a weather forecast for the day of the election made today!
    Punch…..you’re turning into the Crazy Cat Lady of presidential politics.

    Like

  20. Paul Emery Avatar

    Fish writes “They get paid to know that polls a year and a half before the election are as useless as a weather forecast for the day of the election made today! ”
    Do you really believe that fish? Where in the hell did you get that idea? You know little or nothing about political campaigns.

    Like

  21. Paul Emery Avatar

    Any pollster would say that at this time Trump is on a ledge. He has never been above ground in the polls and now he’s reached the point where he has to improve. If he goes any lower he may be out of the picture.

    Like

  22. Paul Emery Avatar

    Gregory writes:
    “Paul is and was wrong.”
    Why are you trying to put a smiley on the Republican total in the House in California? They are down to seven-yes seven seats in California. Not since the 1940s has California had single-digit Republican representation in Congress. You are clinging to LaMalfa’s win as some kind of hopeful sign. How naive can you be.

    Like

  23. George Rebane Avatar

    Paul – There is no doubt that polls can capture current attitudes, which are very volatile and can turn on a dime. But you seem to believe that such polls have long-term predictive power in political affairs. I haven’t seen any data to support that. But I and perhaps other RR readers would be interested in a longer dissertation from you on the factors you think allow us to glean the future from the contemporaneous performance of the many polls you follow. Such a piece could lead to a profitable discussion, surpassing the back and forth we’ve had on polls for the last many years. What do you say?

    Like

  24. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Please refer to Oct.8th… you know the onset of your TDS, you should have gotten thee cbd salve….
    😉

    Like

  25. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Sidestepping polls and moving on to AG Barr. VDH
    “The current progressive effort to demonize attorney general William Barr is creepy, but then again not so strange. He came into the office with singular experience and an excellent reputation from past service. As attorney general, he has followed the law to the letter in handling the release, redactions, and dissemination of the Mueller report. His summaries of the report proved factual. They were not contested by Robert Mueller or his team. His decision not to pursue “obstruction” was not just his own, but logically followed from the Mueller report that did not find enough evidence to make such a positive recommendation. His congressional testimony that there was “spying” during the 2016 campaign is, of course, factually undeniable, and Barr added the qualifier of being interested in finding whether such surveillance was warranted or not..
    ——-
    “In sum, the progressives’ preventative efforts to destroy Barr’s reputation take on a certain sort of sick partisan logic, especially as he is neither the sort to recuse himself during cycles of journalistic hysteria nor to appoint a special counsel, after the ill-starred odyssey of the Mueller all-stars and dream team. Given his age, past tenures, reputation, and professional demeanor, Barr does not seem to be much worried over transient unpopularity, partisan criticism, political pressure, or making tough decisions that might adversely affect his future career.”
    https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/progressive-effort-delegitimize-william-barr/
    So the fear is not that Barr broke or will ever break the law, but rather just the opposite: He seems the sort who will follow the law wherever it leads him and without worry over the consequences — and that reality is now apparently seen by some as quite scary indeed.”

    Like

  26. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    The whole thing stinks to high heaven so much that even Bob Woodward can’t ignore it no more. If it was a snake it would have bite him.
    Bob Woodward: FBI, CIA Reliance on ‘Garbage’ Steele Dossier ‘Needs to Be Investigated’
    https://www.nationalreview.com/news/bob-woodward-fbi-cia-reliance-on-garbage-steele-dossier-needs-to-be-investigated/

    Like

  27. Paul Emery Avatar

    George
    Trump has a base following of about 30% which will vote for him no matter what. You have to have at least a strong support in the mid 40’s to win an election. When Trump starts losing the Romney and Ryan factions of the party for example, which he has, he is done. The Republican Party is dead. It’s now the Trump party and they do not represent the majority of Americans which you need to win an election. It will likely be Biden and Harris or perhaps Amy Klobuchar which will lock in the traditional Democrats and the Women’s and Black votes. Again if he falls deeper in a hole it will be hard to clime out. With 12 investigations going his way he will have his hands full and he can’t “Barr” his way out of all of them.
    The main thing is Trump is going to have to gain some middle of the road support and I don’t see where that is going to come from if he keeps appealing only to the shrill right which he already has in his pocket
    Going to be lots of fun.

    Like

  28. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Lets have a big one handed clap for the comic stylings of the pony tail of ignorance @ 945!
    😉

    Like

  29. scenes Avatar
    scenes

    Gregory: “Remember those days of blissful delusional ignorance, Paul?”
    Ah yes. We should look back in time using the crystal ball. Eenie meenie, chili beanie, the spirits are about to speak.
    Nov 7 2016, Paul Emery sez: “Anyway Hillary will easily win today which is a sigh of relief to the mainstream Pubbers who can toss him out like dead flowers and regroup for 2020.”

    Like

  30. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    “Anyway Hillary will easily win today which is a sigh of relief to the mainstream Pubbers who can toss him out like dead flowers and regroup for 2020.”
    -Punchy Nov 7, 2016
    Beautiful. Such power, such certainty. So much delusion.

    Like

  31. Paul Emery Avatar

    hat was then this is now Gregory. Ever hear of buyers remorse?

    Like

  32. Paul Emery Avatar

    That was then this is now Gregory. Ever hear of buyers remorse?
    scenes, do you have any remorse about siding with Todd in believing the Pubs will the house in the midterms?

    Like

  33. Paul Emery Avatar

    will win the house-typo

    Like

  34. Todd Juvinall Avatar

    Looks like the “predictor” PE is lousy at it as 538. That was then this now buy his skills are now even worse since the onset of dementia. LOL!

    Like

  35. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Todd
    How about your predictions of a red wave in the last elections and that the Pubs would gain in the House?

    Like

  36. scenes Avatar
    scenes

    The ever-prescient Paul Emery sez: “scenes, do you have any remorse about siding with Todd in believing the Pubs will the house in the midterms?”
    lol. You are welcome to find somewhere where I said that the House would be held by the Republicans (aka, the ‘Pubs’). As I’ve said before, I think that the Blue Mob holds the long-term advantage. We probably need a real failure to rebuild and a culture takes a lot of killing.
    Methinks you are inventing something from whole cloth. But as they say, “RUSSIANS RUSSIANS RUSSIANS RUSSIANS RUSSIANS RUSSIANS RUSSIANS”.
    Honestly, if you didn’t exist, we’d have to invent you.

    Like

  37. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Haven’t mentioned a word about the Russians for awhile scenes. thanks for bringing it up.

    Like

  38. Todd Juvinall Avatar

    We R’s saved the country by keeping the Senate and we have the Presidencu and 5-4 on the SCOTUS. Looks like I was on the right track while PE was out in the ozones again.

    Like

  39. Todd Juvinall Avatar

    Uh Oh, looks like Hillary is in jeopardy again with the Uranium deal. And Paul Emery supported her vigorously last go around.

    Like

  40. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Didn’t vote for Hillary Todd. Voted for Gary Johnson. Who did you vote for?

    Like

  41. Todd Juvinall Avatar

    But you defended her everyday and dissed Trump. I think you did and now you are trying to save dace for your huge defeat.

    Like

  42. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    So do you admit you voted for Trump Todd?

    Like

  43. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Paul Emery | 22 April 2019 at 09:45 PM
    Going to be lots of fun.

    Yeah……it is! I look forward to the wails of anguish and gnashing of teeth when Trump likely wins another term.
    Really the only reason (other than judicial appointments) that I support him….thanks Gregory!

    Like

  44. scenes Avatar
    scenes

    Paul and Todd sitting in the tree
    A-r-g-u-i-n-g!

    Like

  45. Barry Pruett Avatar
    Barry Pruett

    I most certainly voted for DJT!

    Like

  46. Todd Juvinall Avatar

    Yes I voted for Trump and am damn proud of it. PE voted for Hillary and is lying he did not.

    Like

  47. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    You guys crack me up. Lots of laughs doing this. thanks

    Like

  48. Todd Juvinall Avatar

    Thanks we appreciate your silliness as well. When you get serious we might take you that way.

    Like

  49. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Talk about a total lack of self awareness from the pony tail of ignorance. Squawk it, up it does not change your record.
    😉

    Like

  50. George Rebane Avatar

    Gentlemen, stow the mudballs and return to the topic. How many of you prefer that the House proceeds to impeachment, and more importantly, why would that be a useful tactic for 2020?

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