Remember Seth Rich? He was the first 400-pound Ukrainian to be at the center of the most massive corruption scandal in American history. Night after night, Duped-by-Russia Hannity launched tirades against the murdered Seth Rich and his role in the most massive corruption scandal in American history. Duped-by-Russia Hannity’s ability to weave a coherent fictional narrative from nothing was astounding to behold. Suddenly everything made else. He had created order out of chaos.  The only shortcoming that threatened his steady stream of invective was the fact that there was no truth to it whatsoever. His story proved to be a complete fabrication straight from the alternate reality universe so beloved of Trumpicans. Duped-by-Russia Hannity’s story had absolutely no truth to it whatsoever beyond using the names of real people. Of course, that use of a real name and person, Seth Rich, is what got the network sued.

A little thing like a story with no truth to it did not bother Duped-by-Russia Hannity at all. In fact, it did not even stop him. The Deep State was responsible for the most massive corruption scandal in American history. He named the names. Night after night, week after week, year after year, even longer than the Mueller report itself took, Duped-by-Russia Hannity identified the perpetrators of the most massive corruption scandal in American history. There to flesh out the details of how it all worked was Sarah Carter, the greatest investigative reporter in American history who was ferreting out the details of the most massive corruption scandal in American history.

This time there would be proof. This time there would be a public accounting. This time the government itself would reveal how the most massive corruption scandal in American history operated. The guilty people whom Duped-by-Russia Hannity had named with reap their just punishment. The key was the Inspector General. Slowly, far too slowly for Duped-by-Russia Hannity’s liking, the Inspector General Report was documenting the most massive corruption scandal in American history. Starting last summer, Duped-by-Russia Hannity anticipated the imminent release of the report that would nail the Deep State to the wall and the hang those people out to dry. And he again named those people and spoke of how scared they were as the day of reckoning approached.

Finally, December 9, 2019, would be the day the truth was revealed. December 9 would be the day that Duped-by-Russia had been waiting for all those days, weeks, months, and years. The Inspector General report would be the vindication of everything Duped-by-Russia Hannity had said. Again and again he stressed how afraid all the people he had named were. Again and again he rejoiced in how scared they were. He used that word a lot. They were scared.

How did he know this? In the segments that I watched, he never revealed how he knew all these people were so scared. Did he interview them? Did someone else on Fox interview them? Did he watch them on some Fake News show writhing in agony over the pending release of the Inspector General report? Did he have second-hand information that these people were scared? Third-hand? Six degrees of separation information? Hearsay? Duped- by-Russia Hannity did not seem to have any source of information for his claim that all these people were scared of the about-to-be released Inspector General Report.

So how did he know that all the people he had identified as being part of the Deep State who would be exposed in the Inspector General report, nailed to the wall, and hung out to dry were scared. As best I can speculate his reasoning went something as follows:

All the people he had identified as being part of the Deep State were part of the most massive corruption scandal in American history.
The Inspector General report would identify them as being guilty.
Therefore they had to be scared.

This line of reasoning may not work in the real world but it works great in the alternate reality in which Duped-by-Russia Hannity lives.

Until it does not.

As the day of vindication drew near, Duped-by-Russia Hannity expressed some concerns. Oh, he still launched into his tirade as always but he began to hedge. Suddenly the Inspector General whom he had been touting for months became the “Obama-appointed” Inspector General. Those extra identifiers not previously used in all the weeks, months, and years of denouncing the Deep State, were a dog whistle to his viewers. Being “Obama-appointed” was code for the report might not contain everything Duped-by-Russia Hannity had been claiming it would contain. Perhaps it would not show the most massive corruption in American history. Perhaps it would only show that mistakes had been but there had been no conspiracy. Duped-by-Russia Hannity was left claiming that the Inspector General report did not do the math. It identified the facts but then did not add 1+1 to get 2. And the “Trump-appointed” Attorney General lacked the power to squash, alter, or skew the meaning of the report before it was released as he had done with the Mueller report. Had they Deep State gotten away with the most massive corruption in American history? Will December 9, 2019, be a day of the Great Disappointment?

Not to worry, there was another report coming. This time the “Trump-appointed” Attorney General had launched his own investigation into the corruption of the Deep State using his own chosen investigator. This time the investigator would have subpoena powers and if there is anything the Trump Administration regards as holy it is the sanctity of the subpoena. This time the investigator would have the power to convene a grand jury. This time the investigator would be able to indict someone. Surely now the Deep State would be exposed for perpetrating the most massive corruption scandal in American history. Surely this time heads would roll. Surely now all the people whom Duped-by-Russia Hannity had identified would feel fear.

One example of the superior power of the new investigation was that it was not limited to the United States. Both Duped-by-Russia Hannity and Sarah Carter exulted in the trips to Italy to expose the truth of the Deep State corruption. These trips were not the conscientious effort of an investigator to tie up all loose ends by following any wild-goose chase the Trump State had concocted. No, not at all. Instead the European trips demonstrated how the entirety of the most massive corruption scandal was being documented. Just wait until that report is released and the indictments multiply!

As it turns out Duped-by-Russia Hannity was right to declare the most massive corruption scandal in American history had occurred. Nunes, the crooked clown, Ridiculous Rudy, attack mutt (is he the hero yet?), the indicted Fric and Frac, and John No-Wisdom, were part of the larger conspiracy to promote a fictional narrative involving the Bidens and the Ukraine. I confess while watching John No-Wisdom on Duped-by-Russia Hannity’s show, he made a compelling case. His low-key apparently fact-based narration made him seem like a Fox counterpart to MSNBC Chuck Rosenberg. Who knew that his publications on The Hill were part of a Russian disinformation campaign and that he was functioning as a Russian operative probably without realizing it? Duped-by-Russia Hannity had been duped by Russia again.

We have learned that the corruption scandal of the Trump State includes the

President of the United States
Vice President of the United States
Acting Chief of Staff
Secretary of State
Attorney General.

Trumpicans in the House and Senate are now repeating Russian talking points. Trumpicans in the House have voted to support Russian imperialism in the Ukraine. The Russian campaign is working.

As corruption scandals in American history go, the Trump State scandal may well be the most the most massive corruption scandal in American history.  How come Duped-Again-by-Russia Hannity has not been able to see this scandal?

P.S. Will this President be remembered as being more submissive to Russia, Turkey, or Saudi Arabia?