Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Hannibal]

I might also be more receptive to the Russia stuff if the accusations weren't coming from the Democrats -- the party that repeatedly cozied up to ideological and military enemies of the United States for the entire duration of the Cold War (looks like a lot of projection happening here). Putin is neither of those.

[hack]

I might be more receptive to the Russia stuff if I thought there was a genuine conflict of interest between the desires of Putin and the national interests of the United States. So far, I can't find any. The only material consequence that I can think of for Trump's election that actually benefits Putin is that Trump won't unilaterally promise to sacrifice American money and troops to fight Russia if Putin invades one of his neighbors.

You and Glenn Greenwald are basically on the same page here. Which goes back to Froot's point about how the political spectrum kinda bends at both ends into a circle.

Overall, I think all these objections from the right would carry a lot more water had it not attempted to impeach Clinton for lying under oath about things that had no link to national security.

[iam416]

Welcome to other side of the fence.

I suggest you develop some coping strategies now, for the sake of your own sanity.

Correct. Can't lose your mind over it. Politics is politics. That's the game.

[Da Geezer]

This is the video of what Sessions said at his hearing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/us/politics/jeff-sessions-russia-trump-investigation-democrats.html

[CGVT]

At worst an outright lie.

At best a clumsy attempt at shading the truth so as not to look bad.

What would have been wrong with, "I spoke to the Russian Ambassador in carrying out my duties on the Armed Forces Committee, but it had nothing to do with the camaign", or something to that effect?

[entropy]

Correct. Can't lose your mind over it. Politics is politics. That's the game.

This election cannot make it clearer that the D's and the R's are the same creatures.

[crashcourse]

2024 2025 2027 are basically unwatchable anymore

that's local msnbc cnn and fox

hysteria is whats on most of the time on all three

thank god kstate had a game last night--and a good one at that

[entropy]

At worst an outright lie.

At best a clumsy attempt at shading the truth so as not to look bad.

What would have been wrong with, "I spoke to the Russian Ambassador in carrying out my duties on the Armed Forces Committee, but it had nothing to do with the camaign", or something to that effect?

That is what I would have said.. or something similar, but realistically the response would still be the same...

We can all be skeptics regarding meetings, favors and influence... but much of what both sides fight over is much to do about nothing. It keeps the sheep busy while they still run the country.

I mean, it's not like they met on a runway prior during an investigation of his wife...

[entropy]

crash.. people forget that Nikita Khrushchev called JFK his Prez. KBG were ordered to try and get him elected.

I'm not saying I'm thrilled about it.. I'd rather not see Trump with these relationships. But politicians have them with other countries. It's not unusual. Being Russia is....

[Hannibal]

This election cannot make it clearer that the D's and the R's are the same creatures.

The Ds and the Alt-Right are the same creatures -- in the sense that they understand the importance of victory and what it takes to achieve it.

The Cuckservative Republicans are another creature entirely. There is no Democrat analogy to those.

[Mainevent]

I don't think what Sessions did necessarily qualifies for him to be booted/step down as AG. It's all about intent, and unless/until some evidence surfaces to show that he willfully lied about speaking to the Russians about/on behalf of Trump's campaign, it's perfectly logical that he would have talked to the Russian ambassador in his role. CGTV is right, he could have easily diffused it with a more robust answer, but that's not something that anybody in this administration seems to ever do. And there's enough wiggle room in that response for him to chalk it up to answering questions specific to discussing the campaign.

And IMO, this has no bearing on whether he should recuse himself from the investigation. He always should have been removed/recused himself. This doesn't change that, except give the Dems some more firepower.

[hack]

Ultimately, ``lied under oath'' was good enough to attempt impeachment of a president under circumstances in which the stakes were far lower. Which is a generous way to put it. Fucking an intern is irrelevant. Nothing was at stake. National security is relevant.

[iam416]

Ultimately, 'lied under oath' was not good enough to remove the President from office, either involuntarily or voluntarily. And it's obvious that the President is a far more important position than any other.

Sessions apparently met with 25 other ambassadors as Senator, as anyone with a brain would suspect.

Also, I personally think there is something at stake in a sexual harassment case. Whether that's more or less than what's at stake in a routine meeting between a Senator and ambassador, I dunno. I suspect some women out there would probably pick the former.

[hack]

You do expect senators to meet with ambassadors, and I do expect people to apply labels like ``routine'', or twist themselves in intellectual knots to compare national security to intern fucking, whether that's appropriate or not. But the law is clear.

[iam416]

I do love chastising application of "labels" in the same sentence as "intern fucking" and, for that matter, "national security."

But, I'm glad we all understand that Senators meet with ambassadors.