MORE COWBELL!

NEW: Russia Inquiry Review Is Said to Criticize F.B.I. but Rebuff Claims of Biased Acts https://t.co/9ZTbqCc3Jd w/@charlie_savage

— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) November 22, 2019

At the same time, however, the report debunks a series of conspiracy theories and insinuations about the F.B.I. that Mr. Trump and his allies have put forward over the past two years, the people said, though they cautioned that the report is not complete. The New York Times has not reviewed the draft, which could contain other significant findings.

Or does it?

The early accounts of the report suggest that it is likely to stoke the debate over the investigation without definitively resolving it, by offering both sides different conclusions they can point to as vindication for their rival worldviews.

Matters not.  The "deep state" is vast and international and right at your elbow just now as you read this.  And it got to Barr and Horowitz and people in government around the globe, and fooled them all and silenced them all and "that's what the word is."

“Well, that’s what the word is,” Trump replied. “That’s what I asked, actually, in my phone call, if you know.”

Host Brain Kilmeade began looking nervous, tapping his fingers and trying to interject. “Right—” he said, but Trump didn’t let him cut in.

“I mean, I asked it very point-blank,” Trump continued. “Because we’re looking for corruption. There’s tremendous corruption. We’re looking for — why should we be giving hundreds of millions of dollars to countries when there’s this kind of corruption?” 

If anything Trump said there sounds like a logical argument to you, or even a reasonable statement of assertions, or makes any kind of connected set of proposals leading to a conclusion, valid or otherwise, then you are beyond the reach of common discourse and the merest reasoning.  Because that first sentence is preceded by, and consequent to, this:

“They gave the server to Crowdstrike, or whatever it’s called. Which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian,” Trump said over the phone to the Fox hosts Friday. “Why did they give it to a Ukrainian company?” (Again, this server theory is completely debunked nonsense that not even House Republicans will defend.)

Again a) a "server" that does not exist as a physical object; b) a company based in California; c) owned by a Russian who is now an American citizen.  Let's not worry about the details of whether Trump's mention of any of this to Zelensky on July 25 was "point blank," just follow the words.  If you can, that is.  First, "the word" indicates "some people say" status about Crowdstrike and the server-that-isn't.  Second, Trump asked "it," but what "it" is there is anyone's guess.  Then "we're looking for corruption" when all he wants is Zelensky to announce an investigation so Trump has video to put in a campaign ad.  And he alleges corruption when every responsible agency in government has cleared Ukraine to receive the funds.

It's not even word salad; it's just words meant to indicate....things, apparently.  Bad things.  "Word is" passes for sound information.  "If you know" is "READ THE TRANSCRIPT!" again, as if that means anything either.  "very point-blank" means direct and honest, but Trump is neither, ever.  And "corruption," which he repeated three times in three consecutive sentences, to drive the point home:  bad Bad BAD!

And what does it amount to?  Phonemes, finally.  Sounds.  Word-sounding noises.  Nothing that makes the slightest bit of sense.  You cannot challenge such a world view with reason, facts, fact-checking, "debunking," even an exhaustive government report.  Only what is acceptable is accepted; what is not acceptable, is part of the conspiracy to deceive.

How did we as a country get so far down this third-world tin pot dictatorship road?