text: We will never know if the russian disinformation campaign threw the the election to Trump or not.  But the "russian thing" is far from over, there are many ties between Trump's associates and russian oligarchs and organized crime groups that will keep the investigators busy for years.  Garland may have failed the NRA's 2nd admendment litmus test, but that does not mean he was unqualifed.  Actually, there are almost no qualifications per se for being a supreme court judge.  And with the fillibuster gone, the nomination process will just be a series of ideological litmus tests for whatever party has the majority in the senate.