Random Politics & Religion #20

High crimes... of course it was a democrat he was talking about, republicans never pejure themselves, they just "mispeak."

Why would Sessions deliberately lie about contacting Russians when it was a part of his job.

Ravel, go look at the questions asked. He flat out lied to one and just didn't answer another by answering an unasked question instead. In all fairness politicians routinely do the latter and often the former.

He could have said at the time that he talked to the Russian ambassador, and 24 or so others as part of his job. Had he, I doubt there would be a problem now. Or at least not with him.

As he was part of the Trump team he should recuse himself from any investigation anyway.

That's what he did though, he had his spoke person make the announcement. There is no suspicion. Everyone is asking that exact question.

If you didn't have to lie about it and you lied about under oath, then later admit it and have your representative announce that you did. Why?

The other question is with respect to the whole of the RNC, why was the Russian Ambassador in question even present at the convention networking with Republican politicians in the first place.

These are things that can not just simply be dismissed, they require an explanation before one can say "nothing to see folks".

I want to be Very Fake Press though.

Say whatever you guys want, there was no perjury and nobody will convict him of anything. This Russia nonsense will go nowhere, because it's entirely based on a desire to force the narrative that Russia won the election for Trump, which is absolute nonsense. There's less evidence that Trump did anything illegal than there was the Hillary did something illegal, and yet it's an even bigger story. Trump's not going anywhere for 4 years, just get used to it.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign accepted illegal contributions in the weeks after election day and falsely recorded them as paying down the campaign’s debt, according to a complaint filed by two watchdog groups on Thursday.

The Campaign Legal Center and left-leaning non-profit Common Cause allege that the campaign violated federal election laws designed to prevent campaigns from circumventing contribution limits. The groups are accusing Team Trump of attributing donations for his 2020 campaign—yes, he’s already a declared candidate—to his previous, 2016 run, freeing up donors to give more down the line....

By earmarking those donations for debt reduction, the campaign classified them as 2016 receipts, meaning those contributions will not count towards the donors’ 2020 contribution limits.

“By falsely reporting post-election contributions as being for 2016 debt retirement, Trump may be trying to illegally double what a contributor can give for the 2020 primaries,” ...

Trump declared his reelection candidacy hours after being inaugurated on Jan. 20. But the complaint alleges that under federal law he qualified as a candidate far earlier, and may have violated run afoul of yet another law in the process.

Federal deems anyone who has raised $5,000 for an election a “candidate,” and requires that they establish an accompanying campaign committee within 15 days.

If the funds raised by the campaign after the election did not go towards debt reduction, they were technically funds raised on behalf of the reelection campaign, which did not officially register with the FEC until inauguration day....

And the beat goes on....

Team Trump Took Illegal Cash, Watchdogs Say
Trump raised more than $10 million right after the election. He says he’s paying off debts. Two groups say it’s an illegal fundraising scheme.
But its in the Daily Beast so you can ignore it.

Highlights:

But its in the Daily Beast so you can ignore it.

Sessions didn't commit perjury and won't be resigning, his recusal is enough.
The GOP investigations will continue however, especially since more and more evidence comes out that Trump has been lying the whole time about his contact with Russia during the campaign. Nobody can make any comments about the evidence present because it isn't public, so its useless to try to say things like "there is no evidence." There is plenty of evidence, more came out today.

The GOP has been involved since the investigations started. You know all Congressional investigations are led by the GOP right? The FBI investigation is completely separate.

Speaker Paul D. Ryan said he saw no need for Mr. Sessions to recuse himself unless he was under investigation, accusing Democrats of “lighting their hair on fire” to keep connections between Mr. Trump and Russia in the news.

And so far, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, has shown no signs of budging from his longstanding resistance to calls for a select committee. His office did not respond to questions about whether his position had changed.

The issue is he is not getting in front of it. He's been trying to dismiss it for months now and it has cost him a National Security Advisor and the full use of his Attorney General.

What if I told you Russia isn't the evil empire and the evil empire is Canada....think about it !

What if I told you neither of them, nor the U.S., is an evil empire...they're all just imperfect profit-driven modern societies with diverse populations and predictable social unrest due to conflicting cultures and lifestyles!

...no. That's too hard.

Maybe you're right. Canada is just evil.

The worst type of evil is the overly polite friendly neighbor that will stab you in the back when you aren't looking...hence we should keep an eye on Canada...

Little Side bar: Nik post those good songs in P n R we could use some cheering up !