Thursday, March 2, 2017

Sessions Needs To Resign - And Reepos Finally Need To Get Serious About Investigating Trump


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"I did not have sexual relations with that woman!" - Bill Clinton before he was impeached.

"I did not have communications with the Russians," - Jeff Sessions when asked during his confirmation hearings if he had any contacts with the Russians.

With the news last night out of the Washington Post that AG Jeff Sessions lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about having contacts with any Russians, it is time the Party of Pachyderms finally pulled its head out of its ass and commenced a full, independent investigation. And no, you dumbass Reeptards, this is not about "whining over the 2016 election" or "trying to delegitimize Trump's speech". (He did that all on his own - see my post from yesterday)  It is about getting to the bottom of a very serious issue: the infiltration of our general election by an outside power.

And may I remind any Repuke denizens reading this, compared with Clinton's relations with Monica Lewinsky this Sessions episode reaches 8 on the political Richter scale, compared with a '1' for Clinton's  sexual transgression.

As I pointed out in an earlier post, if something like this election interference had occurred 40 years ago - when U.S. citizens were still largely well informed and sane (e.g. no radical Right members were in the seats of power) it would have resulted in an inquiry that would have made Watergate look like a child's party.  No stone would have been left unturned in the cooperative effort to ferret out the culprits, or any who might have colluded with the foreign power.   Today, however, too many citizens are prepared to insanely lay blame on "bitter" political opponents as opposed to getting at the truth. Which is now fairly screaming at us in constant sirens and red flag alarms, especially with David Remnick's recent New Yorker article ("Trump, Putin and the New Cold War"),  on the Trump-Russian ties.

But of course to two fifths of the populace this is dismissed as "fake news".  The other hoot is that this is all about trying to "delegitimize" Trump. An interesting claim given that for eight years that's all the Reeptards tried to do over Obama - including using the phony birth certificate claim, as well as other idiotic beefs. (He was a "socialist" etc. or engaged in an "apology tour"). What drives this level of hypocrisy and detachment from reality?

Sam Greene of King’s College London puts it this way:
Our politics are vulnerable to nefarious influences — whether of the Kremlin variety or the Breitbart variety — not because our information landscape is open and fluid, but because voters’ perceptions have become untethered from reality. For reasons that are both complex and debatable, very many voters have stopped seeing government as a tool for the production of the common good, and have instead turned to politicians (and others) who at least make them feel good. Thus, the news we consume has become as much about emotion and identity as about facts.
In other words, the emotions of Trump backers, voters tend to overpower and overcome their good sense, reality perception and reason. This is why - like broken records- even when sobering material is presented that demands investigation they fob it off by yelping "Election bitterness!"  Their own emotions won't permit them to see anything else.

What do we know? According to two Justice Dept. sources, Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions twice spoke with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the presidential campaign.

The Washington Post, citing those  justice department officials (not specified but may be FBI  - which agents are under DOJ) , first reported that Sessions met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak once in September 2016, when US intelligence officials were investigating Russian interference in the presidential election, and once in the summer of that year. A spokes person for the little liar from Alabama confirmed the meetings took place, while Sessions himself - slimy Johnny Reb that he is - doubled down with denial.  He burped: "I never met with any Russian officials in the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false".

And yet when one member of the judiciary committee (Sen. Al Franken)asked him point blank during his confirmation hearings if anyone  in the Trump campaign had ANY contacts whatsoever with any Russians, Sessions said  flatly:

  "I have been called a surrogate a time or two in the campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians."

Here the idiot volunteered information (albeit lies) that he was never asked for. Nonetheless, asked or not, he is hoist on his own dumb petard. He did have communications - TWICE - during the RNC in July, according to the two Justice Dept. sources.

As one might also have expected, the lying, reality- challenged Trumpies spun this differently. Resident Dodo Sarah Isgur Flores, obviously a lackey wrote:

"He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign not about meetings he took as a Senator and member of the Armed Services Committee"

Fair enough, but why then volunteer denial information he was not asked for?  Also as Sen. Claire McCaskill wrote:

"I've been on the Armed Services Com. for 10 years. No call or meeting w/Russian ambassador. EVER. Ambassadors call members of Foreign Rel. Com."

So even in spinning the Trump toadies and lackeys lie.

 Meanwhile, the White House insanely claimed that this was merely an attempt to undermine Trump's speech which was  "reviewed favorably" by some parts of the U.S. media. Uh yeah, maybe, the "parts"  that had signed their gonads over to the Trumpies and lost any claim to being exponents of reality. See e.g.

http://www.salon.com/2017/03/01/donald-trump-pseudo-president-media-embraces-his-latest-pivot-like-the-proverbial-drunks-under-a-streetlight/

Excerpt:
"Old habits and impaired thinking lead to a suboptimal outcome.
In the age of President Donald Trump, too many members of the American news media have acted like the drunk searching for his or her keys under the streetlight. They are looking for answers in all the wrong places.  Here are several examples drawn from the tour de force of lying and deception that Trump performed on Tuesday."

But this won't wash. As 35 year Intelligence veteran Malcolm Nance noted last night, all the evidence is coming together including the conversations collected by foreign sources to bring the Trumpists down. It is only a matter of time before the whole demise arrives. If the Republicans are smart - namely in the Senate and House- they will get real about an investigation and not sit on their asses waiting for the scandal and corruption epic to manifest. They ought to recall history when too many were caught up in the Watergate mess with Nixon and the GOP lost 49 seats in the mid-term election following that debacle.

DO they want the same now? If so, let them keep doing the same  stonewalling and cast their ignominious  fate with the Trump liars and frauds. They will all come down one time, and I will enjoy and relish every minute of the spectacle.

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/michael-winship/71474/if-sessions-had-nothing-to-hide-why-did-he-try-to-hide-it

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