So, the Mueller Report …

The conclusions of the (redacted) report, as I read them:

1. Russia interfered with the 2016 elections.
2. Trump’s campaign knowingly expected to benefit from that interference, and Russia knowingly expected to benefit from Trump winning. But Mueller couldn’t demonstrate active cooperation, so conspiracy charges could not be placed against anyone.
3. Trump repeatedly and (probably) clearly attempted to obstruct justice, but didn’t manage to successfully do so because enough people — out of principle or out of fear — didn’t follow his orders.
4. The above is only probably because Mueller couldn’t file charges against the president, obedient to Justice Dept. policy that the sitting president cannot be indicted, and so also, due to legal principle, he couldn’t accuse Trump  without Trump’s being able to demonstrate his innocence in court. Yet. Hey, Congress + Posterity, here’s all the evidence I uncovered — when you have the power to do something, you decide what to do.
5. At the very, very best, Trump (et al.) demonstrated himself as a reprehensible individual, more focused on his continued power than justice, ignoring the law and ethics and shame, and acting just the way you would expect the guiltiest man in the world to do if he could. If Trump didn’t (arguably, but implausibly) didn’t break the law, that’s the best that can be said of him. Which is a terribly low bar to crawl under.
6. William Barr is a political hack. His redaction, as far as we can see, appears to be legit (to the extent that we can judge that with an eighth of the document blacked out), but his editorializing on the results both in his original four-page not-a-summary, and in his pre-release press conference, is spins in directions against what Mueller actually said, and when you include the pre-briefing that he gave to White House lawyers, he has clearly demonstrated that he sees himself as the President’s lawyer, not the nation’s.

Trump says the report fully exonerates him of everything, but also calls it a horrible witch hunt out to get him. Trump crows that he isn’t being prosecuted for anything because the report proves him innocent, but also calls the report the product of a bunch of evil partisans who were did nothing but lie. How his head doesn’t ‘splode is impossible for me to understand.

Should he be impeached? Almost certainly he could be impeached by the House, and almost certainly he could not be convicted the Senate. Because of party — and you can point that finger both ways, sure, but from my perspective, these are in fact impeachable offenses (bearing in mind that impeachment doesn’t require a federal crime be committed, though the obstruction efforts pretty clearly constitute such).

On the other hand, it may be worth on principle forcing those politicians, of both parties, to announce their stand, to let the voters and posterity judge their actions. Not that I want a President Pence by any means, but I’ve turned the corner on deciding that Trump’s narcissistic sociopathy is a greater threat to the nation than Pence’s Christian dominionism.

Regardless of impeachment, there’s Election 2020, in “only” 19 months. And that’s the moment this nation will announce its stand … and posterity will judge us, too.