Maybe someone can throw cards on Barr? He’s someone whom I had an immediate reaction to. My intuition tells me he is a classic Bush/Romney style GOPer and doesn’t much respect Trump bc he thinks he’s a fool. I get that he is 2-sided, that he has his own agenda and bc he sees himself as smarter than Trump thinks he can achieve whatever that is- but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this- trump always soils you and you don’t win- or you do in the way Mitch McConnell is winning for now. I feel like he made a bargain w trump but not sure what that is besides shutting Mueller down. Does this allow him to control the narrative and make a bargain w trump to support classic elite republicans and stave off any democratic gains/momentum from the Mueller report? Or something else? Trump is so mercurial though, very difficult to corner with his power as president- no matter what you have on him. One thing that seems clear- the mueller report isnt going to take him down directly... it may enlighten us and bring us to truths (that we probably have known bc it’s there to see anyway). Mueller is hope and light but also a teacher of integrity and dignity.
Luminata, Thank you for posting that article about the two kinds of hope. I have gravitated to the second kind of hope, one that doesn't pink cloud the situation but does trust that the situation will turn around when the time is right.
The article, if people haven't read it, is about an attitude of hope called the Stockdale Paradox. A Navy admiral, Stockdale, explained how he survived eight years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He said the optimistic prisoners who kept hoping and affirming they'd be out by the next holiday suffered such disappointment when their time frames did not materialize that they were the ones who gave up earlier and died. But Stockdale, who faced the grim truth of the situation, focused more on his abiding belief that one day he would see his family again, rather than showering the situation with optimism that they'd be freed earlier.
I've come to feel that way about this situation. I meditate on events and see energies in the future but don't cling or depend on a time frame. I believe in the process we are in of rising truth, rising women, and the ultimate power of the light. I am amazed and proud of the persistence of progressives who continue fighting, helping, and illuminating the truth.
I believe that we will prevail when the time is right.
One of my beloved teachers Joanna Macy says hope isn't something you have, it's something you do. She calls it "active hope." Active hope, needs to be deep and profound. It can't be shallow, just asserting that things will change on this or that date. It has to be based on something underlying, a conviction about the power of the truth, and the enduring commitment we have to it.
As I read this situation, I can see how many who read it will react emotionally. Luminata's article on the Stockdale Paradox gave me the courage to lay out what I see regardless of what people want to hear. If we are to endure this situation we have in our world and see the true light at the end of the tunnel, then we have to trust the final outcome but not get hung up on demanding that it goes the way we want when we want it.
I also feel that throwing cards right now raises more questions than it answers.
Throwing cards on this situation: Perhaps it's more telling to throw a card on Mueller and ask how he is feeling about Barr. The card I got is called "Strife"-- 5 of wands in the Thoth deck. I pulled cards on Mueller yesterday and got the same card. It keeps popping out of my deck when reading Mueller. He feels restricted and stressed about the situation he is in. He strictly obeys the law and will do nothing to circumvent it.
Throwing cards on Barr, I got the 4 of disks, Power, which looks to me like the report will be contained, at least for now. There is no plan to release full details, only a vague summary.
The truth will come out, though not all at once.
I wonder as I look forward in time if it will take a blue wave in the Senate and House to get the report fully released. But like most of the truths surrounding Donald Trump's crimes, there will be so much denial and obfuscation, that people will end out believing what they always wanted to believe.
I ask what Barr sees in Mueller's report and I see he doesn't like what is in the report. He doesn't want to know the things that are in there. He winces at the report. You don't want to read in a prosecutor's report damning details about the behavior of the people on your side.
I ask Mueller, how do your findings make Donald Trump look? Answer is Ace of Swords - Trump is ground zero and chief orchestrator of crimes committed. The buck stopped with him. Did he order all of the crimes that were committed? No. Did he know about some of the key crimes being committed on his behalf? Yes.
Will the truth come out? Again, for now, the Strife Card, 5 wands of the Thoth deck comes up. It's Saturn in Leo which means Saturn, the god of discipline and restriction, will restrict the publication of the report with a variety of rationales like "it's an ongoing court case," or "it contains classified information."
In my mind I ask a White House reporter from the New York Times who has sources close to the issue if she will be able to read the report. I get that she feels it is closely guarded and she can't get details and that she senses that it will continue to be restricted from public view.
Reading her into the future tells me more. That the report will become a tinder box for an explosion of rage in this country - rage from progressives who want the truth out and rage from Trumpers who believe the investigation is a leftist coups.
Takeaway: I am focusing more on the process that is unfolding. I'm watching the process our collective is going through rather than hanging on if and when the details of the report will be released in full. I'm using the situation to gain insight.
We are in the midst of a revolution. I didn't say a violent revolution but a revolution i.e., a major paradigm shift in our collective. I see in my mind's eye the process the colonists went through when King George continued to demand obedience and payment to the British Monarchy. Each restriction created more pressure for the revolution to happen.
We are entering into the hot fire of repression and no one on the progressive side is going to be satisfied until all of the details of Mueller's findings are released.
Hi Jeanne,
It's kind of like the movie, The Silence of the Lambs. In it the investigator is given a hint that everything she needs to solve the case is already in front of her. In think we know already what happened. On a gut level. We know. This is just corroborating evidence of what we all already know. I'm glad Mueller will get to get a break , at least. I hope.
Hmm, lots of thought-provoking comments posted on this thread in the last few days. I generally agree with Luminata's and Jeanne's take on corruption in the Trump presidency. What with all of the concurrent state and federal investigations going on and all of the potential witnesses who are disavowing their loyalty to the the current administration, Mueller has his inquiry booby-trapped, and even if the road to justice is more circuitous than we'd like, the truth will out at some point. In fact, news just broke that prosecutors in New York have charged Manafort in a tax fraud case that could bypass any presidential pardon.
Remember that Mueller is only the most visible figure in a sweeping cast of light workers currently fighting tooth and nail to safeguard American democracy.
With all due respect, @gabriel_a, the thought that a thirty six year old women with a Fordam law degree who has experience as a Federal Prosecuter needs her Daddy to protecter her is just a little ridiculous! Barr is a conervative Republican who was hand picked by Trump for the AG job. He will do what he is told which is to stiffle the Mueller report. There will be leaks but McConnell and the can't shoot straight gang aren't about to let any of the criminal charges come to light. THe States can try defendents but they can't impeach or force a crooked President from office.
After the ruling in NC the prospect of Trump being reelected are better and better. The NC candidate committed election fraud, but since he cried in court well we will just have another election and see if you can win honestly this time and if you don't we can always declare that election void on some charges and we will keep trying until the old fraud wins! I don't believe we have seen the tip of the iceberg as far as election tampering is concerned! That's why I think Trump has a good chance of winning again in 2020. If not him then they will run his daughter or even run them together. White Southern Republican men just love Ivanka.
Barr was the architect of the first Bush's iran contra pardons. He also condoned the detention of HIV positive Haitian refugees in the early 90's, at GITMO, until he was sued and the 2d circuit ordered the detention camp closed. He's not a nice person, to say the least, but he's not a trumper. He'll do what he wants, included perhaps keeping the report hidden, but not because trump wants him to. So we'll see what he does. It's his last job, and one he didn't particularly need, so maybe he will care how history judges him.
As for trump, he's on borrowed time. The energy has changed. I've felt it for a few months now. Yes, what lies ahead must be endured, but it is already going to get better. It's in the pipeline.
Yogagirl - I'm with you. I do believe eventually things will turn around, but I think it's going to take 30-50 years, which is past my lifespan.
Here's why: even if the Dems succeed in getting a president into the WH, and even if the Senate turns blue, the Rethuglicans have successfully stacked the deck. We are currently being ruled by minority. This will continue for a long time due to the way our national elections work combined with how SCOTUS works.
For example, a Dem prez and Congress get universal healthcare done. It gets reversed by the court. Green New Deal? Reversed by the court.
The GOP doesn't care about democracy, only about their minority rule. They will find ways to circumvent the will of the people for as long as they are alive. This includes suppressing whatever Mueller has discovered, or pardoning everyone they can.
Like I said, I have faith eventually things will turn around, but I doubt I'll live to see it. I had a recent discussion with a close friend (a pagan priestess, indigenous American and UU minister). She raised a valid point: It's entirely possible that the forces of evil do have a plan to destroy humankind. And further to what others have said here, it's important to acknowledge that reality while simultaneously keeping hope that good will prevail.
Apologies all around for my usual negativity, and AGAIN I do have faith it will get better, just not any time soon.