2019: If your faith in the United States Government has been shaken by political developments over the last three years, you’re apparently right where the political leaders and oligarchs of Russia want you to be. Oh, and President Donald Trump and his aides are likely complicit in this result. BARBARA SLATE podcast excerpt: "There is all this drama and madness created (around President Trump). Everybody is trying to protect him ... But he says (paraphrasing), 'That's was I did. So what?'" Those are among the clear takeaways from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s massive two-year, 400-plus-page report that few of us have read – including most Republicans serving in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Since we’re Americans living in the 21st century, we need everything boiled down and spoonfed with splendid simplicity. Sure, that’s what CNN and MSNBC have done with the Mueller Report, but graphic novelist Barbara Slate, a frequent guest to this show, has gone them one step further. She’s adopted it into a comic book. Mueller Report Graphic Novel, Vol. 1 reduces the horrifying hacking of American democracy to its essence in just 33 pages packed with political cheating and anti-American conspiracies. BARBARA SLATE podcast excerpt: "This is the most exciting project that I've ever done. I feel som passionate about the Mueller Report ... When was the last time you had a conversation when Trump was not mentioned?" Vol. 2 will soon follow. Our mutual friend, the late Will Eisner, the father of educational comics in the 1940s, would be proud. Barbara Slate • •