Because the 2016 election is forever on repeat in the minds all of the Washington establishment, we are once again forced to recall Russia’s prolific Facebook activity, brought by way of a new pair of Senate Intelligence Committee reports.

The reports say nothing we didn’t know — that a Russian-based company published thousands of political memes on social media to “sow literal division” — though it did provide yet more details about the millions of comments and clicks the operation generated.

As before, the reports never prove that a single vote was changed by the campaign, which did nothing more than repeat the stale slogans of political groups on both the Left (“Black Lives Matter,” for example) and the Right (such as the NRA). And this activity went as far back as 2012, far predating the last presidential election or, more specifically, President Trump.

The reports rely instead on numbers regarding the campaign’s “reach” and vague but impressive descriptions of the “meaningful influence” that it achieved. This is how you’d talk if you were trying to sell someone air, tap water, or universal healthcare.

“Together, the 20 most popular [Russian-backed Facebook] pages generated 39 million likes, 31 million shares, 5.4 million reactions and 3.4 million comments,” said an article in the Washington Post about the reports. “Company officials told Congress that the Russian campaign reached 126 million people on Facebook and 20 million more on Instagram.”

Wow — all those millions must account for something! Or at least, that’s what you’re expected to believe. Yet the reports conclude nothing of substance, and they never will.

“In conclusion, the IRA Twitter data shows a long and successful campaign that resulted in false accounts being effectively woven into the fabric of online US political conversations right up until their suspension,” says one of the reports. “These embedded assets each targeted specific audiences they sought to manipulate and radicalize, with some gaining meaningful influence in online communities after months of behavior designed to blend their activities with those of authentic and highly engaged US users.”

The most important part of this is cleverly tucked in at the end (emphasis added): “After months of behavior designed to blend their activities with those of authentic and highly engaged U.S. users."

The other report makes the same point, specifically in regards to how black Americans were targeted using racialized memes.

“The IRA created an expansive cross-platform media mirage targeting the Black community, which shared and cross-promoted authentic Black media to create an immersive influence ecosystem,” it said.

There's that word "authentic" again! And it demonstrates something important about what these Russian accounts did. In essence, they did nothing more than mimic American-born political sentiments. Some of the online messages spread disinformation about how to vote, something that even some candidates do (on purpose or by accident). One of the reports said that the strategy “for race-based appeal involved rallying African Americans around Black political identity and issues.” For example, one Facebook meme referred to the NFL kneeling protests, saying, “I can think of nothing more American than to peacefully stand up or take a knee for your rights, any time, anywhere, in any place.”

Just kidding! That was Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke in a recorded video that went viral in August.

In January 2015, liberal New York Times columnist Charles Blow said on Twitter, “I have no patience for people trying to convince me that the fear these young black men feel [because of the police] isn’t real.”

He was talking about his college-age son having been detained by Yale police because, police said, he fit the description of a suspect. Blow and his son are black, but Blow didn’t mention that the officer who apprehended his son was also black. Regardless, how is Blow’s hysteria, with all the authority of the Times behind it, any different from a Russian meme that said, according to the Washington Post, “Cops kill black kids. Are you sure that your son won’t be the next?”

The answer is that there is no difference. And there was no discernible victory for Russia with their memes, except insofar as the Russians used Charles Blow's message to further divide Americans.

This is something we already knew well. But we’re forced to relive it over and over because 2016 and Trump’s victory remain so deeply upsetting to some.