What Republic?

Collusion. Obstruction. Cover-up. These are not legal terms, but are very real elements in the dirty workings of powerful and corrupt individuals, corporations, government agencies, or administrations.

For those of us who are not lawyers, we need to at least understand how Merriam-Webster defines obstruction of justice.

“the crime or act of willfully interfering with the process of justice and law especially by influencing, threatening, harming, or impeding a witness, potential witness, juror, or judicial or legal officer or by furnishing false information in or otherwise impeding an investigation or legal process”

The Barr/Trump Cover-up of the Mueller Report is rolling along, just as intended. 

All we really have is, “Trust us. We promise.”

Nothing else. They don’t have to cover up the report forever; just long enough to dupe the public into buying their summary and spin as the actual report. 

They’d like to stall on this until the election, of course.

It’s safe to say If Democrats hadn’t taken the majority of the House, we would never see the report. It will be enough of a fight as it is. 

After all, Nunes and the rest of Trump’s House loyalists exonerated him with their not-so-thorough committee investigation, under coaching from the White House, of course.

Since there WAS obvious collusion and conspiracy with Russians, and there WAS obstruction of the investigation in plain sight, the propaganda machinery of the Party of Trump is working feverishly to distract us from what we already know.

“But, intent and motive for conspiracy are difficult to prove,” one may fairly assert. That may be so, but again, it’s all in plain sight.

Numerous campaign cronies were caught lying about numerous contacts with Russians running up to, and after, the election.

In glaring plain sight was, “Russia, if you’re listening...”  And they were. 

His cronies and offspring delighted in meeting with Russian agents in Trump Tower, seeking their support in the election. 

And in Helsinki, our intelligence community was thrown under the bus because Putin “strongly denies” interfering in the United States presidential election.

Who ya gonna trust, Trump or your lyin’ eyes?

Something else is in plain sight. Somehow a few inconvenient words slipped through Barr’s filter. Now the Party of Trump’s mission is to deflect from one annoying little passage from the report.

"While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,"

Or as the Liar-in-Chief puts it, “Complete and total exoneration!”

In the tradition of all authoritarian followers, this is what his cult of true believers shall believe. And so does his loyal party of authoritarian enablers, sycophants, stooges, corporate elites and shills calling themselves the “Republican Party”.

Okay. Time out. 

I need to clear this up right now. They are NOT a “republican” party. That’s history. Their name has become a lie.

Merriam-Webster defines a republic as:

“ a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch... and a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law”

So much for the Party of Trump being that of a republic. He is their monarch and is above the law. He is protected from the law by those abetting his crimes, obstruction, lies, betrayals, and treachery.

Hey, they are Right-wing Authoritarians after all. They have no conscience. They prove it daily.

Any defense of the indefensible is fair in their war against democracy, education, journalism, and equal justice under law.

Rand Paul told Fox(R) News on March 26, 2019, “I think that you can’t obstruct justice when there wasn’t a crime. How do you cover up for a crime that didn’t occur? So if President Trump and nobody in his campaign colluded with Russia, which was the accusation, if they didn’t do that, how can they be covering up for something they didn’t do?”

Gee, that just makes simple common sense, doesn't it? So, how do we know there “wasn’t a crime” again? Perhaps because there wasn’t enough evidence or proof?

What happens when process, evidence and proof are suppressed by obstruction? Proof there was no crime?

No. What happens is there is no conviction for the crime.

“...if they didn’t do that, how can they be covering up for something they didn’t do?”

They same way they’d cover up something they DID do. The report that “does not exonerate” the Tangerine Tyrant is precisely what is covered up now.

Then something else emerged into plain sight:

As Marcy Wheeler wrote in the New Republic: 

Barr’s letter doesn’t address something else Mueller investigated: whether a series of exchanges between Trump’s campaign and Russians amounted to a crime. The sworn testimony of Trump’s aides reveal that, at least through June 2016, he continued to pursue a $300 million real estate deal in Moscow that required Vladimir Putin’s assistance. While hoping to land that deal, Trump’s son, Don Jr., took a meeting with some Russians offering dirt on Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” At the end of the meeting, Don Jr. said his father would consider sanctions relief for Russia if he won.

Then, on August 2, 2016, in the same meeting where Manafort gave Kilimnik polling data, he discussed a “peace” deal in Ukraine that would also amount to sanctions relief for the Russians.

Finally, after he was elected but before he was president, Trump undercut President Obama’s response to the Russian hacks, suggesting that he would give Russia sanctions relief.

The hack-and-leak is not the crime Trump may have committed. It is, instead, a quid pro quo deal by which Russia would help Trump win and Trump would relieve Russia of the sanctions imposed for engaging in human rights violations, annexing Crimea, and hacking the election to help Trump win.


Obstruction is committed before the crime is proven in order to destroy, conceal, or suppress evidence, and to impede or undermine the process of investigation. This is exactly the purpose for the obstruction.

There is never a “crime" when obstruction is successful.  Funny how that works out.

What a beautiful system of justice we have for those very special people.

Next up, also in plain sight, we'll see how beautifully "Individual 1" slithers out of his campaign finance crime.

And he will. The authoritarian Party of Trump will do everything and anything to hold power and defend their Monarch from the rule of law.

And you thought we had a republic?

Sorry, Ben Franklin, we couldn't keep it. The Republican Party destroyed our republic.