The Likely Path Past Mueller’s Report
While we wait and wonder, the options are limited
by Mike Meyer
Mueller’s million pound pressure washer has been released. William Barr now holds the weapon and can decide when and where to aim. Unlike simpler weapons this one has a variable trigger like a garden hose so this could be a weak dribble washing off a little of the grime or a mighty blast able to blow the Trump corruption all the way to hell.
Now we wait. It is well understood, I think, that the US government has fallen so far that there is a strong likelihood that efforts being frantically made to bury, deflect, or destroy the report have a fair chance of success. It is also obvious that Trump and the cohort of criminals surrounding him and now controlling the Republican party could not survive full disclosure of their crimes and diverse treasonous acts, so the fight will be to the death.
Trump has disintegrated into a condition indistinguishable from full dementia but he didn’t have far to go. Endless denials of things already in the public record, of course, are only done for the remaining base who are, themselves, functionally insane. This is all noise without any information but they are Trump’s last weapon and he is preparing them to act.
Sadly it is possible to see the path that this process has the highest possibility of following. Barr will make an effort to minimize the crimes under intense pressure from Trump and cohort. This will result in subpoenas from Congress to release the report in its entirety. How long will this take?
The Trump and the Trump Republican goal will be to delay it as long as possible to invent conspiracies and cobble together distractions. This should have already been done but you never know with the Trump level of incompetence. Even if the has been planned Trump will likely blow it all up by bragging about what he is going to do. We have seen more than enough of his mental disabilities to know what to expect.
Whatever mechanisms are going to be used to hide and distract will begin appearing immediately. The battle will continue through next week. If the delays can be held for two or three weeks people may lose interest but I think not.
The two critical people in this are William Barr and Nancy Pelosi. If Barr decides he doesn’t want to be the bad guy in the history of the final collapse of the American Experiment he may load his initial summary to blow Trump away. The proverbial “smoking gun” most likely direct proof of Trump acting on the behalf of Russian financial interests will be loaded in the initial summary. This is not likely.
There are very few people who would be surprised by any one of several smoking guns. But the odds are high that the smoking gun will be hidden by lesser and more confusing improprieties as the volume of evidence is so large. The end result will then be that Trump escapes because, although he is acknowledged as stupid stupid and criminal, the Russians were able to confuse the trail enough to allow his to maintain deniability.
Nancy Pelosi will carry the flag of justice to demand full release of the report. However that works out she has already laid out her position that is, not surprisingly, to abstain from any serious action. Both parties are controlled by the same people who pay the players so no one wants to lose their gig by risking a major disruption.
To repeat, the end result will be obfuscation and refusal to act. But there are two wild cards, Vladimir Putin and the People of America.
Putin could decide to sink Trump. His goal is the elimination of the US as a contender in working for power in Europe and the Near East. He has come far with this goal having seriously crippled the US with the placement of Trump in the White House. But he may decide that now destroying Trump will further the collapse of the US and that is probably true. He could provide evidence that is a smoking cannon if he wished.
This would place Nancy Pelosi and William Barr in an impossible position as they would be forced to take action directly against Trump and the Republicans. Trump would call his mindless followers to protect him and violence would happen outraging everyone. The end result of that would be removal of Trump, Pence and the rest from the White House. A cascade of disasters would follow. There are no good outcomes in this.
The people of the nation could decide to override the efforts to obfuscate and hide. That would be millions of people in the streets and in Washington. That would take two weeks or so to organize but it would probably force Trump to be removed. How that would be done is anohter disaster as Trump will try to barricade himself in the White House and scream threats at everyone. Who do you send? Ok, a very special Navy SEAL team would probably be used. The only good thing is that Trump is a coward so he would give up. That also fits his form of narcissim. We would have to hope for the best.
In either case Trump will refuse to go. The longer term problem is that with Trump gone people would probably lose interest and decide that the job was done. It would not be done, but so it goes . . .
