The Result of the Mueller Report: “Trump Unleashed”
From Earth Day Demonstration, Denver, Colorado. March 25, 2017
Trump Unleashed: This Is How It Matters. by Bhadrakumar Mekulangara
Of course there will be a flood of commentaries about the Mueller Report. I hope you read the link above. It is by Indian (from India) retired diplomat, Bhadrakumar Melkulangara. For those of you who follow politics, which is most of you, I suggest that you find him on social media or follow his blog (link at his name above). Along with Sarah Abed, who writes poignantly and with great wisdom on the geo-politics of what is happening in Syria (follow her too) and US machinations in the Middle East in general. Reading what thes two have to say is pretty much how I start the day getting my international news. Both are extremely sharp and know what they are talking about.
Anyhow, I can sum up my analysis of the consequences of the report rather succinctly. The title of Bhadrakumar Melkulangara’s article “Trump Unleashed” hits the main points well. All I am doing below is, as they saying goes, dotting some “i’s” and crossing some “t’s.”
As I wrote to a friend back east in an email (slightly edited):
The main result of the Mueller Report is that it strengthens Trump’s hand along with the growing possibility now that he will be re-elected as the Democracy Party leadership looks like fools (which they are). The only chance (as I see it) for the Dems to beat Trump is for them to get behind either a Bernie Sanders or an Elizabeth Warren and that is unlikely despite their popular appeal. If it turns out to be Biden or someone like the former Colorado governor, John Hickenlooper I’m afraid we’re in for another four years of Trump.
Well, I suppose everyone will make of the report what they want but in the end Trump might not get off Scot free, but pretty close. I decided early on that it wasn’t worth arguing with you about the Russian Connection which I have, from the beginning, believed was bogus. Again not that the Russians didn’t try to interfere, but that their interference was minimal compared to the Israelis, Saudis, United Arab Emirates, Japan, the Europeans. Not that they are innocent; they neither had the financial or technical means to do the damage they were accused of.
Of course the extreme right spoke out against the “Russian Connection,” they did so because it doesn’t matter what Trump does, they’ll support him. There was/is a left critique of the whole thing – one that from the beginning saw this as a side show with all kinds of negative consequences and is adamantly opposed to Trump and what he stands for. I am in that latter camp. Our voices were hardly heard, and then not taken seriously. I’m used to that.
The whole thing was a way to avoid Democratic Party responsibility for – and analysis of – their historic defeat at the hands of right-wing buffoon, Donald Trump. Rather than look homeward, they looked for a scapegoat and targeted the Russians, Putin in particular. (more on the vilification of Putin later).
View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 
Exactly right. The “Russia Connection” was an elite-compatible way to 1. Avoid Democratic Party self-reflection and self-criticism, 2. Weave anti-Trump attacks into existing frameworks of demonization, in this case the Red Scare framework (since it was already an existing framework, it was easy to tap into and had wide cultural resonance with the broader population, sounding like a James Bond plot), 3. Make oodles of money for media outlets, who succeeded in turning news into sensationalist, apocalyptic Tom Clancy plots.
While it was great fun and high times for media and party elites to endlessly speculate about what might be in the black box called the Mueller Report, making all sorts of fantastic, nonfalsifiable (in the short term) claims about what would be revealed, they have handed Trump a huge win and seriously damaged the reputability of Congressional investigations of Trump’s actual criminal activity.
Agreed – you nailed it
Well, it is about time. Rachel Maddow has mud on her face. She will probably keep some new conspiracy going. Meanwhile, the Dems are in real hot water if they don’t offer something different than NeoLiberal Economics (I have changed the name “NeoLiberal” to “Neo Feudal”, it makes more sense.