We’ve just received reports that the Mueller Report runs over 300 pages. (Note that this likely does not include underlying evidence produced in the investigation.) A rule of thumb is that a single spaced page includes roughly 500 words; double spaced about 250. Let’s split the different and say 375 words per page and let’s assume it’s only 300 pages. That comes out to 112,500 words, a decent sized non-fiction book. Just now I scanned through the Barr Letter and from what I can tell it includes 65 words from the report. In other words, we have currently seen .057% of the Mueller Report.
Note: There’s a footnote which may include an additional 15 words. This will amount to a game-changing .07% of the report we’ve seen.
Late Update Two: Now CNN reports it’s 300-400 pages “not counting exhibits”. So this thing is frigging long. And all we have is between 65 and 80 words.
First, I want to thank Jeet Heer for filling in for me while I was away. Thank you as well to our New York and DC teams. I would call out specific highlights. But I made an especial effort to wall myself off from everything tied to my cacophonous news life while I was away. My comments on the Mueller Report were a brief exception given what seemed to me the unique nature of the news.
In any case, it’s clear we are in the midst of a massive bum’s rush spearheaded by what should be the notorious Barr letter. I explained some of what seem to me the details here. Others here at TPM and elsewhere have too. We have a letter written by an AG specifically appointed to clean up if not cover up the Mueller findings. It gives the President a clean bill of health based on a narrow claim that there was insufficient evidence to establish a crime in the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia. Because of this, per Barr’s argument, the idea that Trump could have obstructed Justice in the course of his cover-up was all but a legal impossibility. Read More
Let’s start with some military strategy. In the late 19th and early 20th century, German military strategy, influenced by the work of the historian Hans Delbrück, became obsessed with the distinction between Ermattungsstrategie (exhausting strategy or more loosely attrition strategy) and Niederwerfungsstrategie (knockout strategy). This distinction played itself out in history with the German military repeatedly trying to win knock-out wars (famously in the blitzkriegs of World War II) but finding itself bogged down in wars of attrition (in the trench warfare of the Great War and the slaughter-house of the Eastern Front in World War II). This is far outside my field of expertise but it could be that being so oriented to a knockout war made the Germany army less adept at wars of attrition.
The Daily Beast has a good run down of internal angst in the Republican Party over Trump’s decision to push for full repeal of Obamacare. On the face of it, this seems like a self-defeating decision, one made in the face of opposition from members of Trump’s own cabinet. After all, opposition to previous efforts to repeal Obamacare fuelled mass protests that roiled Trump’s presidency and were a major factor in the Democrats retaking the House in the midterms. Read More
There is a very short Daily Beast article that is making the rounds. The headline reads: “Obama Warns New House Dems That Liberal Policies Like the Green New Deal Are Very Expensive.” A funny thing happens if you read the article instead of just the headline.
Mike Lee takes Senatorial iconology to a new level:
WATCH: Sen. Mike Lee uses Reagan, a machine gun, and a velociraptor to argue against @AOC's Green New Deal https://t.co/q30t3Johaq pic.twitter.com/hluEacyvNE
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) March 26, 2019
One of the difficulties in covering the Trump administration, which the media has yet to solve, is that it is breathtakingly mendacious and constantly willing to make up stories out of whole cloth. Here’s an example which got lost amid the Mueller news: outright fabrication about a failed attempt by Trump to unilaterally change policy on North Korean sanctions.
Newly emboldened by the end of the Mueller investigation and claiming vindication, Donald Trump is returning to an ambitious policy goal that he had previously been defeated at: completely eliminating the Affordable Care Act. This is something that Trump failed to do even when Republicans had control of both houses of congress. But now the Trump Administration hopes to achieve this goal via the courts.
Part of the sadness of Donald Trump is that even in moments of triumph he can’t enjoy himself. This was true after his victory in 2016 and it’s true now. Instead of basking in vindication, he’s become even more vindictive.
The man who self-interestedly objected to President Obama sounding the alarm on Russian meddling during the 2016 election is now blaming President Obama for not doing more to counter the meddling.