I\u2019ve been sheltering in a secure, low-news bunker since Robert Mueller handed over his report to Attorney General William Barr last week. That\u2019s so I can avoid getting caught up in the powerful cyclone of spin put out by Trump\u2019s propaganda machine and amplified by mainstream pundits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the record, Mueller explicitly stated that the evidence does not exonerate the President regarding obstruction of justice. His investigation, besides concluding that Russia definitely meddled in the election, yielded 34 indictments, with several close Trump associates pleading or being found guilty and facing time. It\u2019s also been a money-maker<\/a> for the United States, netting more in fines and forfeitures than the investigation cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what are facts in the age of spin?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had fortified myself in advance thanks to Pod Save America\u2019s<\/em> Dan Pfeiffer, who offered a pre-report rant<\/a> before he himself disappeared into his hidey-hole. \u00a0Pfeiffer predicted that unless the Mueller report resulted immediately in Nancy Pelosi donning her sunglasses and sauntering from Capitol Hill to the Oval Office in her new role as President following the Constitution\u2019s prescription for succession, the media would declare a huge victory for Trump and a huge loss for the Democrats. As the Pod Save<\/em> hosts have been reminding listeners since just about forever, defeating Donald Trump and his Republican enablers will require the hard work of organizing to win the 2020 election\u2014in House, Senate, and state races as well as the White House. It was never going to be through a Deus Ex Muellercha<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, with my news consumption down as I wait for the Total Exoneration Bullshit Storm to pass, I\u2019ve freed up a lot of time for other things. If you, too, want to limit your exposure to the Mueller Report Obsession, here are some suggestions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Do your taxes.<\/em> Ready or not, April 15^{th<\/sup> is just around the corner. Why not just get it over with? Be sure to think about how Trump\u2019s biggest legislative accomplishment has been to pass a $1.5 trillion tax cut benefiting mostly the super rich and big corporations while blowing up the deficit Republicans pretended to care about under President Obama. <\/li>}
2. Schedule a doctor\u2019s appointment.<\/em> You might want to do this really soon, since once again the Republicans are going after your healthcare with a vengeance, not just via death by a thousand cuts, but with wholesale elimination<\/a>. <\/li>
3. Calculate how long it will be before you\u2019re eligible for Medicare<\/em>. Oh, silly me! Republicans do <\/em>care about deficits again, which is why they are now threatening Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, and other vital social programs. <\/li>
4. BTW, just as you shouldn\u2019t have been holding your breath for the Mueller Report to save us, don\u2019t hold your breath for Medicare-for-All anytime soon. Be sure to instead work toward it via any of the avenues being proposed by Democrats, but for heaven\u2019s sake don\u2019t insist on any purity tests! <\/li>
5. Have sex!<\/em> Following the news is not only a time-suck, it\u2019s a libido-killer. Put that device down and snuggle up! But if your time until Medicare eligibility is substantial, first make sure to . . . <\/li>
6. Stock up on birth control<\/em>. Already the Trump Administration, under the guise of \u201creligious liberty,\u201d has made it easier for employers to refuse to provide free contraceptives as required by the ACA. The aforementioned threat to the ACA will only make things worse in the family planning department.<\/li>
7. Speaking of which, make a donation to Planned Parenthood<\/a><\/em> to counteract the Republicans\u2019 war on the organization. Bonus activity points for donating in Mike Pence\u2019s name. <\/li>
8. Be careful, though!<\/em> If you don\u2019t want to have a baby but followed #5 while failing to follow #6, you may find yourself needing an abortion. This has become more and more difficult and is about to become even more so as states like Georgia<\/a> pass so-called \u201cheart-beat bills.\u201d Besides banning most abortions, often before a woman realizes she\u2019s pregnant, the goal of these clearly unconstitutional laws is to trigger a Supreme Court hearing with the hope of overturning Roe v. Wade. <\/li>
9. Ah, yes! Remember the Supreme Court? One of whose seats was stolen by Mitch McConnell? The branch of government that motivates Republicans to vote more than Democrats? When I made calls to Nevada for the 2016 election to see if people supported Clinton or Trump, one man told me, \u201cI think they\u2019re both idiots, but I\u2019m a conservative, and I want conservative justices on the Supreme Court so I\u2019m voting for Trump!\u201d Impeccable logic. People who are alarmed by the rightward lurch of the Supreme Court might try it. Planking in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsberg\u2019s 86^{th<\/sup> birthday<\/a> is nice, but insufficient. <\/li>}
10. Hug your children.<\/em> Give thanks that they have not been wrested away from you and put in cages. Spare a thought for those who have. <\/li>
11. Take a hike<\/em>. It\u2019s good to get out in nature. Do it while it lasts–it won\u2019t be too much longer if Trump and his fellow climate deniers remain in charge.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Refreshed by your alternative activities to reading about Trump\u2019s \u201cexoneration\u201d by Robert Mueller as interpreted by Attorney General Barr? Here are a couple of other suggestions once you\u2019re ready to emerge from your bunker:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Call for the release of the Mueller report<\/a>.<\/em>. But please, relinquish any vestigial hopes for a savior. Instead<\/a>, <\/li>
    2. Roll up your sleeves and get to work<\/em>. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

       This Vox<\/a><\/em> article describes how people did just that for the 2018 mid-terms. They knocked on doors, made phone calls, registered voters, and talked to people about their concerns. Contrary to what you may have heard about Democrats in disarray because they\u2019ve been taken over by wild-eyed lefty purists, they did so with a high degree of pragmatism and personal engagement. As someone who\u2019s knocked on a lot of doors and made a lot of phone calls in a lot of campaigns, I can attest that what happens on the ground is quite different from what media hype would have you believe. People I talked to in the swing district I visited every month in the run up to the mid-terms worried about healthcare, good jobs, traffic, and affordable housing and education. Russia and the Mueller investigation never came up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

       Besides which, criminally guilty or exonerated, we\u2019ve\nnever needed evidence beyond what Trump and his Republican enablers display\nmultiple times a day. From despicable character to destructive policies to deep\ncorruption, it\u2019s there plain as day. As George Conway (husband of Trump\u2019s\nadvisor Kellyanne Conway!) writes<\/a>\nin the Washington Post<\/em>, \u201cIf the charge were unfitness for office, the verdict\nwould already be in: guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

       Let\u2019s do something about that. Mueller Time must now\nbe Our Time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

       I\u2019ve been sheltering in a secure, low-news bunker since Robert Mueller handed over his report to Attorney General William Barr last week. That\u2019s so I can avoid getting caught up in the powerful cyclone of spin put out by Trump\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[23,452,545,648,681,682,683,684],"class_list":["post-2269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","category-personal","tag-supreme-court","tag-republicans-on-climate-change","tag-donald-trump","tag-republicans-attack-healthcare","tag-mueller-report","tag-total-exoneration-bullshit","tag-pod-save-america","tag-2020-election"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2F8Ch-AB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2271,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions\/2271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}