By the time Adam Schiff gavelled the House Intel Committee’s business closed yesterday, the case he and the Democrats were making was well past being made. Never mind what any Republican says about acts being bad (maybe) but still not impeachable. Divorced from politics, the information we’ve learned during the past two weeks — much of it from career diplomats wth no political axes to grind — paints one picture and one picture only: Donald Trump isn’t just unworthy of the office of President Of The United States, he’s a goddamned criminal to boot.

When the talking heads and pundits finally got to have their say, they first had to get past their own amazement at what they’d seen to get to their assessments. As amazed at they were at the picture of Trumpian malfeasance being painted, they were equally amazed by the Republicans’ questions and questioning of the witnesses.

Now, c’mon — watching Devin Nunes throw ludicrous charges around at people — as his defense of Trump tells a story if only we’d listen to it. If we pull back the camera just a scosh (the news media understands that technical term), we see Devin obstructing justice every second of every day. Seems kinda basic to ask “WHY?” No one — not even Devin — does anything for no reason.

And, while Devin’s devotion to Trump seems a little extreme, even THAT demands explanation. Under oath.

Out here in reality, that sort of behavior speaks volumes. That behavior is being practiced by every Republican — irrational denial of the undeniably true. It’s not tribalism at work. At its core, it’s not political either (though a political bent does contribute to it). It’s criminal. It’s a willful intent to not just violate The Rule Of Law but to undermine the integrity of the Constitution.

But, why, you should ask. Why would Republicans want to do THAT ffs? Then Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan could answer that question. The way current GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy put it was “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump”. That was DURING the 2016 Republican convention — while Paul Manafort was making one change to the Republican Party platform (a change, though odd, that the party hierarchy allowed) — that was notably Putin-friendly and Ukraine un-friendly.

What our MSM can’t wrap their heads around is the insidiousness of what happened — how we got here. They love a good “smoking gun” because it requires the least amount of explanation. All they have to do is point at it and imagine the Pulitzer on their mantle. But what Vladimir Putin launched against us — and it was very much part of a concerted plan against us — is all based in intelligence active measures. It’s equally happy with chaos as a solid, identifiable result — say, a traitor in the White House.

Disinformation, misinformation and propaganda rely on the press to spread them. While it’s easy to get a provocative lie to motivate a crowd to action, if you can get the news media to broadcast the lie for you? Not only does it get a far bigger crowd riled up, it legitimizes your lie because the NEWS MEDIA was spewing it. That’s the secret to Donald Trump’s media success. Even now — today — 13,000 known lies into his presidency — and the NEWS MEDIA still quotes Trump as if his words WEREN’T outright lies.

Just because your hair’s on fire as you report the lie, you’re still a journalist speaking the words — without saying THEY’RE why your hair’s on fire. It creates confusion not because the audience is stupid but because YOU are using the language of the media (sounds & images) incorrectly. You’ve placed your camera too close to the subject so that vital information is happening outside the frame.

To put it simpler, MSM — you’re missing the story. While it’s a stone cold relief that you finally see Russia prominently here, you still don’t see Russia prominently enough. That’s because you’re still grappling with Trump’s relationship with Russia; though you see a relationship, you don’t see the depths of the relationship. You don’t see the HEART of the relationship. They WHY there even is a relationship and who controls the relationship accordingly.

Because the MSM can’t yet see Trump’s relationship with Russia, they can’t see the Republican Party’s relationship with Russia. The MSM still hasn’t acknowledged that Russia didn’t just steal Democratic emails and secrets, they also stole Republican emails and secrets. What’s in them? Could something there explain Lindsey Graham? Or is that explained better by, say, photos Russia’s obtained of Lindsey and sexual partners he’d rather we didn’t know about?

Strange behavior doesn’t just happen. And definitely not en masse. Republican intransigence in the face of incontrovertible evidence of criminality can’t be explained by mere tribalism. Make no mistake — with Republicans (feeling cornered and increasingly isolated in the culture), this goes far beyond groupthink to groupcriminality.

It’s not a coincidence that virtually every silly Republican defense of what Trump does and has done sounds like mob underlings covering for Da Boss. After three years of this bullshit, some of out here in the Public Courtroom get it. This jury member doesn’t need to see more proof (though I’m always happy to get it). The Big Picture is clear. The dots connect clearly, the picture they make unmistakable.

But, as we know, our Main Stream News Media likes to have EVERY dot connected before they commit. If there’s a smidgen of room to give any benefit of any doubt — they want to give it, no matter how ludicrous.

The Republicans are licking their lips because they think they can kill not just impeachment dead in the Senate, but all resistance to their minority rule coup d’etat. They expect it all to go away even though the Republicans in the Senate will have shrugged off staggering evidence of not just criminality but outright treason. Mitch McConnell and the GOP actually believe that they’ll just sail through another campaign season, slightly bruised but ready to set sail into full on RW authoritarianism.

They don’t expect We The People to do anything. Oh, they expect us to come out and vote — in massive numbers. But, as we speak, Moscow Mitch is expecting the same help from Moscow in 2020 that he KNEW the Republicans got in 2016. Remember — it was Mitch McConnell who refused to let President Obama tell We The People that our IC knew for a fact that Russia was actively trying to impact the election on Trump’s behalf.

And, to this day, Mitch McConnell has done zilch to protect our electoral systems. There are no coincidences.

Mitch McConnell is a traitor who’s about to lead the defense of a CO-CONSPIRATOR with the fate of the Republic hanging in the balance.

That’s what’s really happening here. That’s what a “news media” should be reporting. But, to do that, they’d need perspective. They’d have to see the Republicans for what they are and — here’s the hard part — call them out for what they are. Criminals…

Traitors…

Republicans.