DL Open Thread: Friday, January 27, 2023

The Phony Investigation Into The Alleged Russian Witch Hunt Discovered A Possible Criminal–Trump.  But they kept that buried:

It became a regular litany of grievances from President Donald J. Trump and his supporters: The investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia was a witch hunt, they maintained, that had been opened without any solid basis, went on too long and found no proof of collusion.

Egged on by Mr. Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr set out in 2019 to dig into their shared theory that the Russia investigation likely stemmed from a conspiracy by intelligence or law enforcement agencies. To lead the inquiry, Mr. Barr turned to a hard-nosed prosecutor named John H. Durham, and later granted him special counsel status to carry on after Mr. Trump left office.

But after almost four years — far longer than the Russia investigation itself — Mr. Durham’s work is coming to an end without uncovering anything like the deep state plot alleged by Mr. Trump and suspected by Mr. Barr.

Moreover, a monthslong review by The New York Times found that the main thrust of the Durham inquiry was marked by some of the very same flaws — including a strained justification for opening it and its role in fueling partisan conspiracy theories that would never be charged in court — that Trump allies claim characterized the Russia investigation.

Timothy Snyder Knows His Shit.  And Knows That The Arrest Of Charles McGonigal Has Been Underplayed:

The reporting on this so far seems to miss the larger implications. One of them is that Trump’s historical position looks far cloudier. In 2016, Trump’s campaign manager (Manafort) was a former employee of a Russian oligarch (Deripaska), and owed money to that same Russian oligarch.  And the FBI special agent (McGonigal) who was charged with investigating the Trump campaign’s Russian connections then went to work (according to the indictment) for that very same Russian oligarch (Deripaska).  This is obviously very bad for Trump personally.  But it is also very bad for FBI New York, for the FBI generally, and for the United States of America.

Another is that we must revisit the Russian influence operation on Trump’s behalf in 2016, and the strangely weak American response. Moscow’s goal was to move minds and institutions such that Hillary Clinton would lose and Donald Trump would win.  We might like to think that any FBI special agent would resist, oppose, or at least be immune to such an operation.  Now we are reliably informed that a trusted FBI actor, one who was responsible for dealing with just this sort of operation, was corrupt.  And again, the issue is not just the particular person.  If someone as important as McGonigal could take money from foreigners while on the job at FBI New York, and then go to work for a sanctioned Russian oligarch he was once investigating, what is at stake, at a bare minimum, is the culture of the FBI’s New York office.  The larger issue is the health of our national discussions of politics and the integrity of our election process.

Read the entire article.  Great stuff.

Genuine Hope For Brazil?  If so, the actions of Indigenous Peoples will be key:

The positive changes have come thick and fast. A new cabinet was sworn in that – in terms of diversity of race, age, gender and colour – resembled a vivid forest instead of the grey suburb represented by the Bolsonaro-era lineup of old white men in suits and military uniforms. The country’s first Indigenous minister in 500 years, Sônia Guajajara, said she wanted to “Indigenise politics and reforest minds”. She took office wearing a headdress, joyfully rattling a maraca and promising to look beyond narrow business interests and human electoral cycles. “We are not the only ones who need to live here. We just cohabit Mother Earth along with millions of other species,” she said.

In congress, the newly elected Indigenous deputy Célia Xakriabá spoke of a turning point: “Reforestation is when we reawaken hope in people who were asleep. Brazil wasn’t dead, Brazil was asleep.” She expressed determination to change the culture of the legislature: “Congress will no longer be grey. It will be the same colour as us, the colour of genipap and annatto.”

This honeymoon mood will, no doubt, run up against political reality. But the euphoria is not blind. Indigenous people in Brazil are more aware than anyone that territory and rights assumed one day can be stolen away the next. It is why Indigenous thinkers such as Ailton Krenak say first peoples are particularly well equipped to deal with the climate crisis because they have been living with apocalypse for centuries.

But this time, Indigenous people are in a position of power. They have a public platform and Lula has promised to give them more territory, not just for reasons of historical justice but because he recognises they are the most effective stewards of nature.

Lula and his environment minister, Marina Silva, have set a goal of zero deforestation and stated a willingness to use the power of the state to prevent further invasions of protected lands and biomes. Farmers have been told they must revitalise degraded land if they want to plant more crops. This is an astonishing break with the past. For hundreds of years, Brazil’s entire raison d’être in the global capitalist economy has been the exploitation of natural resources. It is hard to think of any government in any country with a more ambitious nature agenda.

What do you want to talk about?