Trump has catalyzed a watershed moment in our nation's history, and one, if we're not vigilant and careful, may never recover. The "Russia" narrative is an out-of-the-park home run for the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex (MICC), both political parties outside the MICC, and the MSM. And no, this is not some grand conspiracy, but an unlikely and unholy alignment of interests which are no longer aligned with the greater good of the American people, or any other people of the world as "people" are commonly understood. What the Russia narrative has done is given us the Mueller investigation. Whatever you think of Trump personally, it's a very bad precedent to authorize a special counsel to investigate wtfever [pdf]:

(b) The Special Counsel is authorized to conduct the investigation confirmed by then-FBI Director James B. Corney in testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on March 20, 2017, including:

(i) any links and/or coordination bet ween the Russian government and
individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and
(ii) any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and
(iii) any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a).

(c) If the Special Counsel believes it is necessary and appropriate, the Special Counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters.

Some say that this is no different than Whitewater, but it's not even in the same universe. Whitewater was started when a specific individual (David Hale) was the source of specific criminal allegations (claimed Clinton had pressured him into making an illegal $300k loan to Susan McDougal). The specific criminal allegation that launched a thousand ships against Trump and perhaps all future presidents: Russia! Whitewater, in hindsight, was really bad. This takes that mistake up to 11. The opposition at time of inauguration has a shiny new tool, burnished by precedent. Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey will be supplanted by the Quest for the Blue Dress in our cultural narratives.

MICC benefits because a super-majority of the sheeple they herd and fleece are now united in fear and loathing of Russia and are baying for action. And if the sheeple trust the MICC to deal with the Russian (bug)bear, well, they extend that trust to believe the MICC will do what's in their best interest. And our war in Yemen is good for jobs. Yeah, that's the ticket.

And Russian fear and loathing sells. It whips up passions and generates the clicks and the retweets and sustains the monologues. Is there any MSM outlet that is at all skeptical of the Russian narrative. Sure, they have different spins this way and that (no collusion with Trump, but totally tried to whack Skirpal, or collusion, hacked the election, and totally tried to whack Skirpal), but there is some way that Russia is at the bottom of something nefarious that's totally transforming America for the worse. And they're right. Whether the Russians are doing something effective actively, I don't know, but the Cult of the Anti-Russia is creating a bunch of dogmatic zealots whose reasoning is impaired where fact and fiction are indistinguishable.