In one of the latest entries into the Encyclopedia of Gleeful Cruelty and Dickishness, Trump announced last week that he is stopping immigration at the southern border because “the country is full; sorry”.  He can’t do that, of course, and the courts will stop him (again), but this is his campaign strategy for 2020, keeping the entire country whipped up into a lather while Heinrich Himmler Stephen Miller cooks up more nasty things to do to innocent people trying to save themselves and their families from the violence caused (or made worse) by US foreign policy in Latin America.

New York Times

Not only is this yet again new policy completely unnecessary and gaslighting of the worst kind,  Trump’s declaration is 100% false.  The country is not full; as a matter of fact, the work force is shrinking in many parts of the country.  As the country ages, the economy will suffer from lack of workers.  The NY Times published a story about this just this am.  This just another lie piled onto the Mount Everest of lies that Trump has built the the GOP has allowed to happen.

C’mon 2020.

In one of Trump’s most bewildering soliloquies since “covfefe”, trump rambled on for several minutes yesterday on national television in front of the head of NATO, repeating that we needed to know the “oranges” of the Mueller report.  It was a rehash of his whole hate Democrats, hate John McCain schtick, but the “oranges” references were confusing until just about everyone reached the conclusion that he was talking about “origins” of the report.  Never mind that we already know the oranges of the report (the dozens of contacts with the Russians, foreknowledge of WikiLeaks email dumps, bragging about how the Russians love him, and firing of James Comey for investigating the relationship), this guy’s mind is truly failing, and he confidently babbles nonsense on a pretty regular basis now.

Have a look, if you can stand it:

Orange you glad he’s our president?

Eric Holder, appearing on MSNBC with Ari Melber, has just said that Bill Barr “is wrong” by stepping in and being judge and jury on possible charges against Trump.  He said that Barr’s conduct is highly unusual, and that these kinds of actions involving the President should be deferred to Congress, not taken over by the Attorney General, a political appointment.

Here we go.

We STILL haven’t seen the Mueller report, but it appears that it shows all the evidence for and against Trump and his cronies colluding with the Russians, apparently punting an indictment decision to the Justice department.  Barr predictably cleared Trump of collusion with the Russians with NO explanation why; on obstruction, he did what he already said he would do, which was to oppose those charges against Trump.

Obviously, Mueller chose to not throw the country into a Constitutional crisis by giving Trump a pass on the legion of lies and the dozens of contacts with the Russians and with Wiki-Leaks.  His definition of “obstruction” was so narrow that it was impossible to come to criminal charges because there wasn’t a smoking gun (or pee-pee tape). I mean, for God’s sake, Manafort is in prison, Michael Cohen is going to prison, and George Papadopoulos has already served time, all for lying to investigators about their contacts WITH THE RUSSIANS.  Barr’s whitewash doesn’t pass the straight-faced test, and we don’t know yet what we don’t know.

What we do know is that even Barr, who SAID we couldn’t indict a sitting president with obstruction, stated that Trump was not exonerated of this crime.  Since Trump actually confessed to obstruction by firing Comey, it’s pretty clear that he did obstruct justice, but Barr is declining to follow through on the charges because Trump is in office.

We all know what’s going on here, right?  Trump is guilty as hell, that is clear.  To protect the guy who nominated him, Barr is providing legal cover for a period of time so the media can falsely claim that Mueller cleared Trump, which he most certainly did not.  When the truth comes out in a year or so, it will be too late as the lies of his innocence will then be ingrained into popular culture, and we’ll then be in danger of electing this walking violation of the Constitution to another 4 years.

God help us.

As we await the Barr Report on the Mueller Report, Trump’s TeeVee Howlers are proclaiming “nothing to see here”, and “the witch hunt is finally over”.  We all know, though, that it’s not over, not by a long shot.  Mueller sending his report to Justice is just the end of the beginning.  The Dems are already talking about subpoenaing Mueller to testify before the House Intelligence Committee in their own investigation.  The State of New York has multiple criminal investigations against Trump’s “charity”, his real estate company, and against individuals tied to him like Roger Stone and Michael Cohen.  The most ironic investigation is the one of Trump’s inaugural committee where ACTUAL collusion with foreign powers is pretty apparent with evidence of using straw donors to launder money into the Trump’s coffers.

Trump, who usually spends his nights and weekends tweet-raging, is uncharacteristically quiet this weekend, hiding and playing golf in Mara Lago.  You know that Barr has already reported Mueller’s findings to him; also, he has not yet provided the promised summary of the findings to the public. That his attorneys are with him his no surprise.  The White House is claiming there is no war room set up in Trumpland, but you know that’s bullshit, and that his legal team is all hands on deck.

With 37 indictments, 8 guilty pleas, prison sentences and multiple trials in various stages, my guess is that the contents of this report is not nothing.  This is just the end of the Mueller investigation, which is just the beginning of a multi-front legal and political battle.