The Timeline

I spent some time arguing on Facebook with a guy who thinks the real villain in the Russia scandal is, of course, Hillary Clinton and the Deep State.  So, with Josh Marshall's help, let's lay this out.

2013 - Idiot manchild Carter Page comes in for scrutiny because he's cozying up to Russian agents and bragging about it.

2016 - FBI and other intelligence agencies begin investigating the hacks into the DNC server.

March, 2016 - Carter Page and Paul Manafort join the Trump campaign.  Page is his Russia "expert" and Manafort is in some unspecified roled.  Manafort has had long and lucrative ties to the pro-Putin cabal in Ukraine. 

June, 2016 - Paul Manafort becomes campaign manager.

July, 2016 - George Papadopoulos drunk-brags to an Australian diplomat that the Russians are going to give him damaging emails from Hillary Clinton.  The Australian diplomat contacts the FBI.  Wikileaks then dumps its first set of emails.

The FBI is in possession of the following facts: Carter Page, who has been under investigation for years, and George Papdoploulos, who has bragged about colluding with the Russians for dirt on Clinton are two members of the Trump foreign policy team.  Manafort, who has extensive ties to Russian interests, is the campaign manager.  Russian hackers are releasing damaging emails about Clinton through Wikileaks.

July, 2016 - Manafort pushes through a plank in the GOP platform that suggests America will no longer help Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

July, 2016 - Trump urges Russia to hack into Clinton's email server and release them.  He did this in a press conference.

All of this - as Marshall points out - comes with the backdrop of Trump's financial connections with Russian business interests.  This is why he fired Preet Bahara as US AG for Manhattan.  Trump - like a lot of real estate developers - runs to windward of financial laws.  His numerous bankruptcies made it impossible to borrow from American banks, so he turned to Russian oligarchs and siloviki to finance his business interests.

Summer, 2016 - The Steele Dossier is turned over to the FBI.

Fall of 2016 - Wikileaks continues to drop emails at convenient times for the Trump campaign.  Steele - worried that the FBI isn't taking him seriously - leaks his dossier to David Corn.  The FBI freezes Steele out.

October, 2016 - Democratic leaders, aware of the FBI's investigation of Trump's foreign policy circle, want the FBI to release that they are actively investigating the Trump campaign.  Instead, we get the Comey letter, written by Peter Strozk that most certainly tips a tight election into the toss-up category.  The FBI actually DENIES that they are investigating the Trump campaign, even as they are investigating the Trump campaign.

November, 2016 - Against all odds and the expectations of just about everyone, Trump wins the election.  The FBI's plan to avoid looking suspicious by releasing news of the Huma Abedin emails, in fact tips the election to someone that they are investigating already.

Let's go further.

December, 2016 - Michael Flynn promises the Russians that sanctions will be eased.

January, 2017 - Jefferson Beauregard Sessions recuses himself from the Russian investigation, because he lied to the Senate about his Russian contacts.

May, 2017 - Trump fires James Comey, then he brags to Lester Holt on air that he did so to end the Russia investigation.  Rod Rosenstein appoints Robert Mueller to investigate.

Pretty much everything I wrote there was established fact.  We can add the guilty pleas of Papadopoulos and Flynn, if you want.  Those are facts.

What was striking in my encounter with my friend tapped into the hivemind is how little any of this evidence means to him. 

Obama is the real villain here, because reasons.

Depressing as hell.