What Is Beyond Self-Parody?
It has been just amazing watching people who have been saying since summer 2016 that the idea that Russia was ratfucking the elections on behalf of Donald Trump was a paranoid liberal fantasy claiming full 100% vindication (just like their president Donald J. Trump, who do they do not support, was totally 100% exonerated by the partisan summary of an unseen report that doesn’t even claim he was 100% exonerated) when the summary explicitly acknowledges the Russian ratfucking campaign:
Obviously the question of Trump campaign collusion is important and can claim some vindication on.
But “Dems yelling at Glenn Greenwald” is about whether or not the Intercept’s breathless coverage of hacked emails was them being dupes of a pro-Trump Russian influence campaign.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 25, 2019
Hmm, I wonder why someone who was handed exclusive leaks by the ratfuckers and dutifully hyped up a bunch of inane trivia like he had been handed the Pentagon Papers doesn’t want Russia’s role in the 2016 elections discussed!
In fairness, few people are more carefully attuned to what the typical Democratic voter is thinking:
The extent to which you thought Avenatti had a good shot at the presidential nomination reflects the extent to which your view of what actual Democrats are like is jaundiced by watching waaaaaayy too much cable news.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 25, 2019
I mean, yes, some liberals were a little credulous about Avenatti — as discussed at the time, I was amazed how many liberals thought his intervention into a confirmation that could only be stopped by Republican senators would be helpful — but the idea that he had any serious presidential constituency was nuts even before his grift was fully established. (As Nate goes on to say, look at the “outsider” candidates getting attention in the Democratic primary — Pete Buttigieg is an almost perfect inversion of Trump.)
Let’s conclude with the less paradoic version:
Dead end Russia truthers are still demanding to see the full report. I don’t see the point. We have a summary by Attorney General Bill Barr. As I have always said, never question the word of the intelligence community.
— Glem (I Do *NOT* Support Trump) (@GlemGreenwald) March 25, 2019