I have to judge Mueller by his actions, which to me are convincingly bad. The Gestapo raid on Manafort and wife, raiding Cohen’s office and the Flynn charges all point to a bad actor. Mueller had to have known the original 302’s said Flynn didn’t lie but he still charged him! If your theory was true, he hired hardened partisans to prevent the Dems from using them, couldn’t he have hired them, without doing all of the above
Those are good points. I definitely do not have all the answers.
I welcome all posts that argue with my points politely and intelligently (like yours did).
I am still trying to fit all the facts I know into a cohesive whole.
Here is my speculation on the points you raise. I’m not trying to be an apologist for my point of view. I am only offering possible theories that would still fit it.
1. Manafort raid. Agree with your assessment that it was a Gestapo tactic. Could Manafort have been in on it? Was it theater for some purpose? Or could Manafort have been a much greater danger than we imagined which necessitated the extreme tactics of the raid? Could it have been done by the Deep State in order to make Trump/Mueller look bad? Remember that Trump does not have full control of all operatives at all agencies. (My top guesses are theater or DS action.)
2. 302s/Flynn. I think Flynn has been a good guy all along. The fact that Mueller had to have known about the 302s and still charged him are, to me, evidence that Mueller is a white hat or at worst a leveraged black hat and is playing a part in this operation. The point was to make Flynn look bad publicly (or more precisely to make the DS think that Flynn was not a threat to them). I believe that Flynn “knows where the bodies are buried” and has been working with the Trump team all along. By sidelining him, it appears that he has been neutralized as a threat to the DS. What has he been doing all these months?
3. “Couldn’t he have hired them without doing all of the above?” Good question. I think it was part of the ruse. The DS needed to be lulled into a false sense of security where they thought they were still in control. If they thought they were all about to be arrested immediately, they could have fled, they could have struck back, etc. I have concerns that the DS has the power to conduct FF ops like yesterday’s shooting events. But my greater concern is that they have access to far more deadly retaliation than that and would not hesitate to use it if cornered. In addition, I believe that much of this was necessary to flush out exactly who was on which side.
Those are just my guesses - trying to make everything fit together into consistent narrative. Admittedly, it’s the narrative *I* favor and one that points to a positive outcome for the good guys in the end. So definitely I’m biased.
I’d look forward to hearing from you if you think some or all do not make sense.