Thread: The anatomy of this #ObamaGate stuff is so emblematic of….everything. It’s really something to watch it in real-time.

The gist is that the right-wing media, and not just the fever swamps, are so deep into this, that everything that comes out to them is a BOMBSHELL.

But if you actually step back into the real world, you can see the absurdity.

They think, despite the fact that there were billions of obvious reasons why Trump/Russia connections needed to be investigated, that it was actually an elaborate framing operation.

Despite the fact that Russia really did commit cyber crimes to attack Hillary and the Democrats, Trump publicly supported these crimes, Trump Jr. met with someone promising dirt to help “the Russian Government’s effort” to elect Trump...

Not to mention the parade of Trump campaign aides who had Russian ties, including his campaign manager who lobbied for Russian oligarchs. And then Trump himself constantly praised Russia, and Putin, despite criticizing every other foreign leader.

And then the GOP changed their convention platform to be more friendly to Russian interests. And then Trump associates communicated secretly with Wikileaks about data dumps from Russian hackers.

None of this is to say that all of these are proven allegations, BUT...

..they CERTAINLY presented enough circumstantial evidence that there should be an investigation.

But in the fever swamps, this was somehow made up out of whole cloth! Just a DEVIOUS Obama/Biden scheme, hatched with Republican FBI Director James Comey.

Oh yeah, James Comey. This is the guy who knew who spoke very publicly, and VERY negatively about an investigation into Hillary Clinton. He wrote a letter that many, including @NateSilver538, swayed the election to Trump.

THIS was the guy who helped hatch the anti-Trump plot.

Meanwhile, Trump was being investigated at this time. But there were no public releases about it. The public had no idea. There were no leaks, Comey said nothing publicly. OBAMA said nothing publicly. Neither did Biden.

Quite a devious conspiracy!

Then there’s Michael Flynn, someone who admitted to a federal crime, and expressed contrition in front of a Federal Judge about the crime he committed. He had spent years lobbying on behalf of foreign interests, and had some shady Russian associates.

Obama didn’t run to the press to say that the guy his successor was about to hire as National Security Advisor, was actually some agent of a foreign power. He TOLD TRUMP privately that Trump shouldn’t hire Flynn.

Then Flynn, during a Presidential transition, communicated with a Russian ambassador using a backchannel. He lied about the details of that call to many, including Mike Pence. He was fired. He was then charged for lying about this to the FBI.

But, three years later, we find out that federal law enforcement was using…somewhat normal investigative techniques against Flynn. Contemporaneous notes say they were trying to figure out the end-game: Get the truth from Flynn? Or get him to lie and charge him?

Conservatives, who in any other context couldn’t give two shits about the rights of criminal suspects, act like this is some sort of crime against humanity, rather than, at worst, a slightly overeager strategy from prosecutors.

Not only does this prove that the prosecutors were bad, but that Flynn is actually INNOCENT and a MARTYR, despite the fact that he’s already admitted his guilt.

It also proves, somehow, that the entire Russia investigation was a sham?

Oh yeah, this ties into the other big scandal of the Trump-era, according to the right-wing media, #FISAgate.

Conservatives (with a few exceptions) LOVE unfettered national security electronic surveillance. I lived through the 2000s!

But when the surveillance state gets over their skis for on Trump campaign aid Carter Page, all of the sudden it’s a world-ending scandal.

The FISA process is fundamentally flawed. The Page FISA warrant was defective, and it did bring to light serious problems with FISA applications in general.

It’s nice that conversatives other than the Rand Pauls finally noticed this.

But somehow, this isn’t about a flawed FISA process where agents legitimately cut corners and we need better oversight.

To them, it is ALSO proof of the VAST DEEP STATE CONSPIRACY.

Because, to them, the Carter Page warrant was the ORIGINAL SIN!

Technically that’s false. The investigation started after a drunk Trump aide, George Papadopulous, mouthed off about receiving stolen emails.

But ignore that for a second. No one gives a crap about Carter Page.

The Trump/Russia connection was staring us right in the face!

The Mueller report itself documents TONS of suspicious conversations between Trump people and Russian agents. What he said was that there was not enough to charge anyone with criminal conspiracy. But obviously it was worth investigating!

Of course, the right-wing takes the conclusion that “there is not enough proof to charge Trump campaign people with criminal conspiracy” as somehow a vindication of Trump and proof of an anti-Trump Deep State conspiracy.

When you step back and realize that the entire thing is built on a pile of bullshit, you can understand why every BOMBSHELL is actually nothing.

Obama aides UNMASKED MICHAEL FLYNN?

The guy who was about to become President had possibly hired a Russian agent as his NSA!

Yet if you are so far in the right-wing universe, you really take these BOMBSHELLS at face value, and your belief in the conspiracy becomes deeper.

And then, the right-wingers can’t just complain about the conspiracy itself. They also have to complain about how the LAMESTREAM media isn’t covering their paranoid rantings.

But for some reason, mainstream media outlets are extremely sensitive about conservative criticism, so they get bullied into covering this as an actual story, instead of the pile of crap that it actually is.

And casual news consumers see “OBAMA/BIDEN SCANDAL??” on CNN chyrons. And a little distrust of Obama and Biden and Democrats starts to seep into their sub-conscience!

So even though Trump does more corrupt stuff than this most days before breakfast, the casual news consumer slowly gets the impression that everyone is corrupt, politics doesn’t matter, it’s not worth voting etc.

Then Democrats lose elections.

So the bottom line: A conspiracy that literally rests on “Obama and the Deep State tried to destroy Trump by…not telling anyone about the scandal and letting him win the election” ends up taking up a lot of political oxygen…even during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC.

It’s…telling.