POST MUELLER: WHAT TO DO?

Trumpists can spin like tops but Mueller's report has dropped, historians will consider it the bedrock source regarding who did what in the 2016 election (yes, even over Rudy 🤣 ) and, in our time, the gods in DC will continue to heave lightning bolts at each other as this continues to play out on the national scale.

So, I ask myself, what can I - mere mortal in Bethlehem, PA - do to occupy myself (#OccupyMyself ?) while waiting for the no doubt momentous national events to come?

AS A CHRISTIAN: Christians have never been married to one type of government, though I consider myself beyond blessed to have lived in a democratic republic. My duty as a Christian is the same no matter WHO is running the show and no matter WHAT (if any) rules they feel compelled to follow.

It is the duty of a Christian to ally ourselves with the marginalized and unmask and rebuke death's false claim of authority over the human race as that claim is operationalized in deathly and dehumanizing systems of poverty, racism, materialism, militarism, etc.

AS AN AMERICAN: As an American of any or no religious faith, the Trump administration has laid out the core duties of a patriot.

1. INSIST on facts.
2. INSIST on the rule of law under the Constitution.
3. INSIST on humanity and decency in our leaders and ourselves.
4. INSIST on transparency and moral integrity as the standard of leadership even though human nature may fail the test in one specific case or another.
5. INVEST OURSELVES in those civic institutions of a democratic republic that mediate between the consolidated power of the nation state and the atomized liberty of free individuals.

And, yes, that last one especially is a TRULY CONSERVATIVE point of view first articulated by Edmund Burke, expanded upon by De Tocqueville, and now stolen from Yuval Levin by Bill Bekkenhuis. 🙂

I will keep an eye on international and national issues in Washington, DC, communicate with my representatives, and engage in civil protests if necessary.

But with Mueller's report out, our energies are now best expended in our neighborhoods and communities, whether by participating in local politics, supporting the Red Cross or the Boy Scouts, the local fire department, and / or the church or mosque or synagogue or values community of choice.

With Mueller's report, D-Day is over. The beachhead has been secured.

But there's a lot of house-to house fighting - for facts, for decency, for humanity - to come.

Facts are stubborn things.

We demanded a judgment from an independent, unbiased arbiter on the legality of Trump’s and his campaign’s actions regarding Russia’s criminal conspiracy into the 2016 campaign and whether his subsequent actions constituted obstruction of justice.

And, based on what I know right now, the American people got that from the Department of Justice.

Now it goes to Congress to make a political decision on impeachment and conviction and / or the electorate to make a political decision on re-elected Trump for another four years. And the House should attend to its oversight responsibilities so sadly neglected for the past two years.

But, as John Adams said in defending the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre (again, not a popular cause):

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. John Adams

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_adams_134175

For all the consternation being shown by my fellow never-Trumpers on MSNBC and elsewhere, Mueller's and Barr's decisions seem transparent.

There were acts that might have been obstruction. Mueller decided to not render a decision on whether or not they were criminal instead listing each instance and reasons for / against prosecution as a crime that could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt... and booted the decision to Barr.

Barr looked at the list and decided that no single instance could be proved according to federal statutes stipulating that for the action to be a criminal offence the prosecution would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt 1) engaged in obstructive conduct 2) with the corrupt intent 3) to obstruct an impending legal proceeding.

To put this in an extreme way… Trump could have acted 100 times and each and every time have met two of the three conditions beyond a reasonable doubt but with insufficient evidence on the third and Barr would be justified in his decision.

Barr determined that, regarding obstruction, there was insufficient evidence to charge Trump with a violation of the obstruction of justice statutes.

Maybe it will turn out that Barr is on Russia's payroll and has Mueller bound and gagged at Guantanamo (which Mueller would probably count as a vacation at this point).

But until such time as someone gives me some really good reason to believe that, I am going with the independent DOJ decision that Trump committed no obstruction of justice CRIME that he could be successfully prosecuted for irrespective of DOJ policy against indicting a sitting president.

From Barr’s Summary..."Generally speaking, to obtain and sustain an obstruction conviction, the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct with a sufficient nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding. In cataloguing the President's actions, many of which took place in public view, the report identifies no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct, had a nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding, and were done with corrupt intent, each of which, under the Department's principles of federal prosecution guiding charging decisions, would need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to establish an obstruction-of-justice offense."

Read Attorney General William Barr’s Summary of the Mueller Report