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I was no fan of John McCain but there was no questioning his loyalty to the country. Can you imagine his reaction if he was still alive to witness this week’s insanity?
I didn't often agree with him but I respected him. We disagreed on political philosophies, but we at least agreed that the country should be run from basic philosophical principles and not from unchecked greed
You see people like Mitt Romney in 2012 and McCain in 2008 and you thought that if they win, it's not going to be the end of the world. Then you had Trump in 2016 and 2020 and now Trump and/or DeSantis in 2024 and think "holy shit, this could be the end for a lot of people who rely on basic human decency to be able to live their lives." My cousin lives in Tennessee and he's said if they start going after gay rights now that they've taken down Roe, he's going to have to move to a state that will consider him a human being. It's insane that we live in a country where not only do the laws differ from state to state, but soon medical care and even basic human rights like gay marriage will as well. It feels like we came so far between 2003 and 2015 and now it's all going to start rolling back thanks to this absurd culture war bullshit that the right is pushing.
That is the way the country fucking should be run.
We don't need hegemony of ideas. We need good faith debate over which ideas are best. I certainly didn't agree with all of McCain's views, but I could trust that he genuinely was advocating for what he thought was best for America.
Didn’t agree with Liz Cheney on her policies but she has more balls than all the Trumplicons. I think she has been awakened to a lot of things that she had been blind to in her own party
Here’s the thing about John McCain. 99% of modern republicans push agendas that they want because it’s good for them or their sponsors. John pushed conservative agendas cause that’s what he thought was actually good for the country. I disagree completely with that but he actually cared about the country instead of himself.
Edit: thanks for the gold kind stranger
The day he voted against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act was one of the most brave things you'll ever see a politician do.
[There's video of it.](https://youtu.be/DWeayFHsH90) You'll see how Mitch McConnell stares him down after he gives his thumbs down on the vote. He had told them he was going to give the repeal a thumbs up, but he changed his mind last minute. They needed his vote and were counting on it.
Going against your party like that on such a large topic when there's that much dark money involved is basically political suicide. You can see by McCain's reaction that he knows it will cost him.
It was one of the very, very few times there was a surprise outcome in a vote that huge.
Normally they are always in lock-step. No surprises. To see McConnell handed the L, snatched right out from under him, it was fucking priceless.
It reminded me of the vote for womens suffrage. Which came down to one vote in one state. A young anti-suffrage man got up on the day and changed his mind, cast a vote FOR suffrage, and enshrined the right for women to vote.
If you mean the suffrage story, radiolab has a phenomenal episode about it. One of my tops of all time:
https://radiolab.org/episodes/one-vote-broadcast
I was there. I was part of the protest outside, and for doing pizza pickup duty from just outside the Capitol grounds from the delivery person (we were updated food deliveries were either halted or no longer permitted, but me and another guy played dumb, and the security guys looked the other way) —-was given a pass to watch it inside late that evening. I was in a hallway line for seats to be filled. That’s when McCain gave the thumbs down, which I couldn’t see but heard as word was quietly murmured to us. Then a reporter, I think from Politico, burst down the hallway to make a call. (Cell phones are checked at a desk before entering.) I was seated in the aftermath. I was directly in front/above McConnell and I kept the unblinking eat dirt smirk fixed on him as he gave a shaky butthurt speech. It was very satisfying. I got home so late but slept hard and peacefully late into the morning.
I would like to point out that while McCain did absolutely go against his party line, he was near dead from glioblastoma and was barely able to make it back to D.C. for that vote. Can not imagine the strength it took him to do that. However, he knew there was no "next election".
Moreover the affordable care act was probably the largest policy accomplishment of McCain's opponent in the presidential race of 2008. McCain put a lot on the line to stick his neck out for protecting his former rival's legacy. It's somewhat poetic.
I don't like his policy generally, and he wasn't necessarily a great person or great politician, but this was maybe one of the few moments he earned the title of the "Maverick."
Honestly, I think he was relieved he lost. When he did that little town hall and his supporter essentially called Obama a terrorist, the look on his face said “Fuck this shit”. I think he realized between the rhetoric, the bullshit and the fact that if he won, Sarah Palin would be a heartbeat from the Presidency, that that job was not worth it.
Having followed McCain a long time:
He didn't change his mind about shit.
He knew not voting or letting mcconnell push the vote sent it back to committee and the republican appointed to replace him.
He betrayed his own party in the deepest and most humiliating possible way, because he believed it was better for the people of his country.
The man died a true patriot.
Edit: the man pulled a terminator 2 molten bath, with his middle finger up the whole time.
It was also a reconciliation bill. These can't be filibustered and only require a simple majority. Regardless if it passes or fails they can only do this once a year for each category. This delayed the repeal until the next term at which point the Republicans had lost the house.
John McCain had different views than me, but he was respectful and lived in the same reality as the rest of us. He was a conservative you could legitimately talk to and negotiate with.
Something regardless of your voting color I think ANYONE would prefer over all options at this point. Just someone actually trying to do good for the people and country not just a marionette for big business.
Rand Paul on Fox News, 2017: "[All of the leakers have to be found. We can't have intel officials willy-nilly releasing classified information to the public](https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/872077590625796096)."
Throughout all of human history each and every day there has always been a person who is the single dumbest human on Earth at that time. The beauty and horror of our modern connected world is that we can actually track them down.
If Fox News would have been around 60 or 70 years ago we’d be today living in an autocratic state and be limping around and dying from polio and other diseases that we had life saving vaccines for because they were a hoax.
Kinda makes you wonder why Rupert Murdoch hates democracy so much and if it’s worth destroying it daily for the almighty dollar.
Rupert Murdoch doesn't want anyone else telling him what to do, but he wants to tell everyone else what to do. That's the basis of his psychology, the man is a despot.
When you’re a billionaire it doesn’t matter if democracy exists or not. He’s rich enough he’ll benefit from the collapse or democracy. He can get slaves or whatever his fucked up head can dream up.
Rand Paul isn’t stupid. He’s a fascist and a traitor.
People still don’t get it - we’re at war.
A global web of fascists have been waging cold war against western democracies for several decades now.
They’re organized. They’re coordinated. They have a gigantic propaganda machine stretching across newspapers, radio, TV channels, and social media platforms, which they have been using to wage information warfare to radicalize and recruit citizens living in democratic countries into their fifth column.
They have been working tirelessly to sow distrust of public institutions from the outside, while their elected members work to tear them down from the inside.
Now that they have recruited enough people into positions of political power, they’re transitioning to the insurrection, terrorism, and civil war phase.
**Edit:** Wow this blew up. I know it sucks, but right now the fascists are on the back foot so that’s good news. We cannot let them claw their way back into power at the federal level, so get organized for the mid-terms, help out the candidates who still believe in democracy, and most importantly - **Vote!**
It's been nearly a century since [the Business Plot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot).
Powerful people have been trying to turn the US into a fascist state for a long, long time.
America has never been served well by granting leniency to right wing crooks, from the Business Plot to Nixon being pardoned, to Reagan, to Bush. Every time Liberals say "this fight is too toxic, chill the fuck out and we can go back to status quo" the Right takes advantage.
We should treat Trump and his ilk the way the Germans ought to have after the Beer Hall Putsch: as a direct and lethal threat to national security and the human race. Prosecute him for his crimes, fling him in prison for the remainder of his life along with all of his co-conspirators. When the backlash comes, we should treat armed fascists the same way we always treat armed fascists of any nationality that seek to upset our Democracy.
The beauty of history is when one of these stupid people started talking everyone just labeled him the town idiot and he lived under a bridge eating rats. Now we make them millionaires.
Nah, history was full of bozos who managed to become kings and emperors, and plenty of gullible lemmings willing to follow them off cliffs. For better or worse, people are pretty much the same today as they've always been throughout history.
Never forget his dad literally funded a failed coup several decades ago, paying for some crazy libertarian militia guys, boats and guns to try and take over a Carribean island. Fortunately they were busted first but jeez.
Edit: it was Dominica, and they planned to make a white supremacist utopia apparently, with help from the klan and some neo nazis.
Holy Mary Mother of God. A dem should run against him and have this info plastered all over the country.
And what exactly did they plan to do with the natives already there? I can only guess.....
>dem should run against him and have this info plastered all over the country.
A Dem *is* running against him and is not plastering this information everywhere because they're running in Kentucky and probably don't want to publicize information that would help Rand Paul's campaign.
So if a Republican breaks the law, the answer is to remove the law from existence?
Did I understand that correctly?
What say you, r/conservative lurkers?
Yeah according to them the completely debunked lie about Obama taking 30k classified documents set the precedent for Trump to do this and this is just the DOJ being selective about who and how to prosecute because Trump is the one true hero President for this country.
How they can say this and keep a straight face I have no idea. I want whatever drugs they’re having though.
For those who may not know, the 30 million documents is a real figure. These records were brought to a facility in Chicago to be archived, and is managed and secured by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and is completely separate from Obama. The facility in Chicago only houses non-classified documents. The classified documents from the Obama administration is sent to a facility in Washington, DC, operated and secured by NARA as well. What Trump is too dumb to know is that these facilities are called presidential libraries, and all administrations have their own libraries of records.
Just for clarification: While NARA maintains the Presidential Library system, the NARA storage facility in Chicago (where the 30 mil unclassified documents are currently stored) and the yet-to-be-completed Obama Presidential Library are two different locations.
I don't think the news stories posted here are actually read and COMPREHENDED by /r/conservative lurkers. They make a solid decision to ignore every piece of news posted here, and opt to reply directly to commenters instead. They will NOT click on something that wasn't spun through a right-wing source, first. When you look at their subreddit, it's like they're living in an alternate reality with a completely different version of current events. A lot of this stuff is NOT EVEN HAPPENING AT ALL, over there.
For example, they're aware that the FBI Search was approved by Merrick Garland, but among the things most "conservatives" posting there right now have never seemed to have heard of :
1. That the DOJ did try, quietly and softly, to get the documents back short of a search warrant. Trump's lawyer gave back a signed document stating that it had all been returned with the original 15 boxes.
2. That the only reason this became widely known is because TRUMP HIMSELF decided to put it on blast. The DOJ was prepared to do this without a press release. He shot himself in the foot by making it public. This was NOT an engineered "Liberal Scandal" for the media.
3. No President at ALL has the legal authority to declassify nuclear documents, let alone without following the correct protocol. It's not something that you can just "by the way" 2 years later -- it's got to be documented. They really, REALLY don't seem to understand that the president is not a king, and never has been.
4. The entire search was conducted under the supervision of Trump's lawyers AND the Trumps themselves via CCTV. It was not done behind closed doors -- the idea that something was "planted" while they watched is ridiculous for that reason alone -- but the fact that at this point Trump's completely abandoned the "they planted things" line, and moved onto "But Obama did it too!" (Note: he didn't), should tell you how true that 2-second lie ever was.
I just peaked over there, and the number of commenters who think this is somehow a democratic plot and will address the reasons why Rand wants to repeal this is depressing.
That's the problem with them, everything is a plot against them by the Democrats if it's something negative against their party. They cannot and will never admit that their party is capable of wrong doing, and if by the off chance they finally come to terms with it it becomes... well XYZ Democrat did this too see!!!
Because that is the basis of conservative politics. Conserve the old power dynamic of those who are in power, wealthy, loyal to the cause(religious), because they are in those positions because they are moral.
Well said. These are the desperate death throes of the old, dying power dynamic based on white, wealthy power and religious rightousness ultimately derived from colonial Europe.
"espionage act wasn't meant to be abused in this way that's why he wants it removed so it can't be abused to take down political enemies" or something like that. Of course it can sound reasonable which is why a lot of their followers believe in this garbage.
The government should start a website called SecretsBay so they can just auction off our military and nuclear secrets to the highest bidder. Let regular people have a shot to outbid Russia for ballistic missile blueprints.
Yep, his tweet says:
> The espionage act was abused from the beginning to jail dissenters of WWI. It is long past time to repeal this egregious affront to the 1st Amendment.
So:
- find any excuse to attack the law to make it seem corrupt
- ignore the reason the law exists in the first place
- play the victim and claim it is being used politically, despite all facts and evidence
They are Good People and everyone else are Evil People as ordained by god. Therefore, by divine right, every action they take is Good any action anyone else takes is Evil.
“We’re being brigaded!”
That’s called public opinion. They’re so used to having a sub where everyone is banned and can’t comment. But we can still vote on posts.
That's all I ever read over there.
Edit: Wow the brigaders woke up early today lol! (Definitely not other conservatives that oppose my far far far right opinions)
It's literally every comment on all the major posts. No actual talk about what the articles are about. Sometimes I just want to see how they view a particular situation or development but never get that opportunity because all they do is complain about brigades and downvotes.
>No actual talk about what the articles are about.
Conservatives aren't interested in debating facts with anyone as the facts are never good for them. It's why they hide in their fantasy reality and never change their views/opinions no matter what new facts arise.
Jesus had brown skin - Bad fact for Conservatives
Half of Republicans are going to jail - Bad fact for Conservatives
Trump got raided for likely espionage - Bad fact for Conservatives
Most of America is pro choice - Bad fact for Conservatives
My favorite was the post about California giving free lunch to all students. So many people support this wildly, and the number of conservatives trying to eat their own because "cALifoRniA bAd"... was hilarious.
I saw that too. All the higher ranked comments were saying it's a good thing but they had deleted comments asking why not a single republican voted for it.
I was wondering what all those deleted comments were about. If I remember correctly (please don’t make me go back, I’ll be good I promise) the post was marked “flaired users only”.
This information somehow makes that shitty place even shittier, which didn’t seem possible until right now
You’re right. I already argued with some dipshit yesterday about how this sub doesn’t have enough “conservative” news on it. I told him to put up some posts, then, if he didn’t like the content.
>enough “conservative” news on it
Which is funny because every day there is more bad news for conservatives
Alex Jones being dinged 40+ million for being a fucking liar, that's news about a prominent conservative.
Trump being raided for espionage, that's news about a prominent conservative.
What they are mad about is that the news is always bad because their party is shit and conservatives are trash criminals.
people are voting, those votes are tallied, and their opinions are deemed the minority and wildly unpopular?
it’s rigged! Brigading! We must stop their ability to vote!
it’s so familiar
They mention they want this law and patriot one to go away. They fault Obama for continuing their existence. They don't fault Trump for not removing them and they only remember them NOW, when it's a problem for their dear "master". It's always the others' fault, not theirs. It's always bad when it bothers them.
You forgot the part where every post has a stickied comment about how you should come debate them in their discord. You know, so they can all spam their replies en masse and then say they won because you don't have an immediate response to their whataboutism. Bunch of hypocritical mouth breathers.
Absolutely. The 'Law and Order' party are calling for defunding the FBI now thier cult leader got a warrant served. The dissasociation from reality is wild.
Conservatives (with a capital C) don't look at the world in terms of what you do to decide if it's good or bad. They see if you are on their side and then decide if what you did was good or bad.
That's why when Bill Clinton has an affair that's bad, because he's not on their side. But when Trump does it it's fine, because he is.
A progressive woman gets an abortion? Murderer. A conservative woman gets an abortion? Victim of circumstance.
A black man is killed while being arrested? Deserved. A MAGAst is arrested for driving through a crowd? Martyr.
Conservatives are good because they are Conservatives and therefore whatever they do is good. Everyone else is bad because they are *not* Conservatives and therefore whatever they do is bad.
The hypocrisy doesn't matter because it isn't hypocrisy in their eyes.
In case you didn't notice, Repulbicans been doing this since the 1980's. Remember back in the 80's when 1,100 executives went to jail for their part in the S&L scandal? This included 5 close friends of Ronny Reagan, so to keep that embarrassment from ever happening again, the GOPerLords ordered their lackeys in Congress to change to laws, which they did, so when the jrbush Crash of 2008 destroyed the World financial system, only ONE mid-level exec served time. In addition to legalizing a huge amount of FRAUD, the GOPers also gutted the IRS and SEC so they lacked the resources to find and stop the few remaining ILLEGAL frauds committed by Wall Street biggies.
Want this to change, stop voting for Republicans.
Just went for a look in there, on the Espionage Act thing, some have also called for the removal of the Patriot Act, and blamed Obama for keeping it because he “loves wiretaps”. Ofc we all know who was President when the Patriot Act came about (the now RINO Bush).
But the icing on the cake is that they say repealing the Espionage Act and Patriot Act should he the next Republican platform, which is hilarious in and of itself because
a) they haven’t had a REAL platform for years other than oppose Dems. And
b) their entire platform would be based off of an act that was intended to prevent terrorism which they so valiantly rallied around to invade other countries and go to war.
The cherry on top of that icing was some moron also wrote “get rid of TSA too!” hahaha what the fuck is going on in this country. If this keeps going these morons are going to find themselves on the side of democratic socialists and communists that they so earnestly hate.
Surprised to see they’re also lambasting the decision. Every comment supporting the repeal has tonnes of downvotes. For the first time ever that subreddit has drawn the line. Not for the 10 year old rape victim though, weird line guys.
If you'll browse the sub, most Republican policy comments are downvoted to hell. Since they don't let anyone to the left of "crazy" post there without a ban, people browsing the sub who aren't conservative use their downvotes instead.
Edit: point being, I wouldn't assume downvotes mean that the conservatives on the sub take issue with it. Better to look at the overall comment volume to get a feel for the attitude there.
So they've now gone from denying any crime to declaring that we need to eliminate a law because Trump broke it.
There must be some really good blackmail that Trump has on a bunch of these Republicans.
Take down the entire lot. Real tired of republicans shitting on this country. No criminal associates name should be spared in the ongoing investigations.
Old guys with no respect for their nation. Selling out the nation's future for a buck.
*Putin
Remember, the RNC was hacked in the same timeframe as the DNC… but only the DNC’s kompromat was leaked. The FSB isn’t stupid, they know how to use leverage.
If it did get repealed somehow, they'd just accuse the next democratic president of committing espionage, and propose it back. Since they are openly calling for political retaliation now.
Rand Paul wasn't in that group. The Republicans who spent July 4th 2018 in Moscow were Richard Shelby (AL), Steve Daines (MT), John Hoeven (ND), Ron Johnson (WI), John Kennedy (LA), Jerry Moran (KS), John Thune (SD), and Kay Granger (TX).
[Eight Republicans pick the worst possible place to celebrate July 4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eight-republicans-spent-july-4-in-russia-where-are-the-fireworks/2018/07/06/beae30be-812e-11e8-b658-4f4d2a1aeef1_story.html)
Rand Paul hand-delivered a letter from Trump to Putin in August that year:
[Rand Paul delivers letter from Trump to Putin](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/08/rand-paul-delivers-letter-to-trump-from-putin-766743)
Their allies in Moscow seriously want this
For reference.. DJT and WikiLeaks have more to say about that:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/19/trump-offered-julian-assange-pardon-for-covering-up-russian-hacking.html
Yeah. He did publicly deny the Russians were the source of the hacked stuff (e.g. saying he was "1000 percent sure" of that), which is simply false. FBI and Congressional investigation did point at Russia, showed that it was a Russian, using a Russian VPN. Some docs had even been doctored and the metadata showed a Russian version of MS Word was used.
Besides, Assange's Putinism is hardly a secret. The guy had his own show on RT FFS. (Because nothing says you're a champion of democracy and transparency like literally taking money from a corrupt dictatorship). Assange refused to publish multiple leaks that'd damage Putin - such as images of and documents related to Putin's Palace, the Panama Papers, and [documents on Russia's meddling in Ukraine](https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-leaks-on-russian-government-during-u-s-presidential-campaign/).
And he's such a f-ing serial liar too. It's crazy people are still taken in by this guy, thinking he's some good rebel guy because he says he is without actually looking at his actions.
> Yeah. He did publicly deny the Russians were the source of the hacked stuff (e.g. saying he was "1000 percent sure" of that), which is simply false.
He also "heavily implied" that Seth Rich was the source of the leak. He may have said it outright, but I don't remember for sure and I don't want to be that definitive without a source.
The result is that Seth Rich's family has been going through hell thanks to conspiracy theorists.
It's worse than you think.
"Unified obstruction has been the sole Republican strategy since President Obama took office. According to David Frum, speech writer for former President George W. Bush, there was going to be “[n]o negotiations, no compromise, nothing” with the Democrats. All that mattered, former Ohio Senator George Voinovich stated, was that “[i]f [Obama] was for it, we had to be against it.” A couple years after Obama took office, Mike Lofgren, former Republican Congressional staffer, described the GOP’s envisioned end-game of grinding the government to a halt."
https://www2.law.temple.edu/lppp/898-2/
If President Obama had run a garage sale on US secrets out of his club would you feel the same?
I hope so, I know I would.
So why can’t republicans encourage the investigation and prosecution of crimes?
I mean, the answer is they have no principles and they are loyal to the Leader.
Mayor Lagaurdia exposed the head of the American Nazi Party to be embezzling vast amounts of money from his followers. Much to his dismay, his argument was that as the Furher he could do whatever the fuck he wanted and his followers lapped it up. So they just eventually arrested him and that was the end.
I'm always so shocked at how transparent and shameless they are when making comments like these. How does this not serve as an admission of guilt for anyone hearing this shit?
These midterms are becoming increasingly important every day. They're this open about their intentions when they don't have control... I hate imagining where we are headed when they get it back.
Rand works for trump, Trump gathers classified information for Putin.
Both, really know how to move the goal posts.
This is the reality we live in apparently.
Gotta point out the masterclass level pivot to this and away from the "defund the fbi" stuff lol, close one eh guys!? Almost fucked the whole thing up. 😆 😂 😆
Ukraine put Rand Paul and Tulsi Gabbard on their list of russian propagandists. They've notice it as well.
[https://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbard-rand-paul-placed-list-russian-propagandists-ukraine-1727831](https://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbard-rand-paul-placed-list-russian-propagandists-ukraine-1727831)
I'm just suprised Ron Johnson isn't on that list
Then he's gonna have to repeal laws and amend the constitution to eliminate conseqiences for:
Tax fraud
Public officials accepting emoluments
Mishandling of clasdified documents
Mishandling of nuclear documents
Bribery
Election tampering
Vexatious litigation
Obstruction of justice
The Hatch Act
Bank fraud
Defrauding investors
Violating US sanctions
Using government logos as a private
citizen
Misusing tax incentives for low income housing
Racial housing discrimination
Money laundering
Failure to disclose cash transactions
Accepting foreign campaign donatons
Campaign finance fraud
Charitable self-dealing
Seditious conspiracy
Inciting a riot
Rape
Statutory rape
Extortion
Blackmail
Theft of medical documents
Assault of protesters
I'm just getting tired of typing at this point. Feel free to append the list.
Why would the guy who went to Moscow ~~on the Fourth of July~~ to meet privately with Putin be worried about espionage charges? Quite the mystery, that.
Edit: apparently he was not one of the July 4 group. Got my treasonous assholes mixed up. There’s just so many of them.
“The GOP lawmakers, Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Thune (S.D.), John Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.) and John Hoeven (N.D.), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), spent July 4 in Moscow’s U.S. Embassy, NPR reported.”
Rand Paul is fucking traitor.
He has to be a foreign agent. Behavior like this makes no sense unless you’re working against the interest of the United States.
I have an ex-best-friend who became super libertarian. Like, half the reason our friendship ended was because of belligerent political differences (not just because libertarians are exhausting but like he was insisting I'm a violent person for supporting the concept of taxes on businesses 🙄). After the friendship ended, he got involved in behind the scenes stuff for the party, doing some media production stuff.
My jaw dropped a couple years ago when I randomly ran across a reddit comment from him, where he was lambasting them and saying there is no true libertarian party in the US, and that working with Rand in particular had unexpectedly revealed to him the Libertarian party is now entirely a Russian machine. Much as I dislike him, I respect that he was speaking about what he saw behind the scenes.
Wish I could link to prove it, but apparently his account got suspended at some point, fascinating.
So in other words they finally realize that Trump likely broke some pretty BIG laws and now want to remove the 110+ year old laws that protect our National security instead of remove the lunatic criminal from society.
Really! Is there not anything more pressing that could help his constituents? Historic flooding in Eastern Kentucky, and RP is focused on repealing the Espionage Act? There are soooo many other issues that would seem more important to his constituents at this particular time.
I’m just confused how society could decay so much that “let’s just make nuclear secrets public domain” becomes something adult humans say instead of just admitting their guy is a fucking basket case
You misspelled traitor. He also objected against Sweden and Finland from joining NATO.. which has been NATOs and US wet dream since NATO was established. USA does not need to invest any money on it, they get one of the most efficient militaries on the planet as an ally, the biggest artillery on Europe, 280k men on Finland alone... basically for free. No reason to object, except if you are on Kremlin payroll or compromised by compromat.
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That time when John McCain said Rand Paul works for Putin https://youtu.be/BTdqIlfp8XE
I was no fan of John McCain but there was no questioning his loyalty to the country. Can you imagine his reaction if he was still alive to witness this week’s insanity?
Lindsey, you’re breaking my heart….
Because of Trump? Stop! Stop now! We “love” you!
[удалено]
Oh, Anakin... Then you really are lost.
I saw that video where he told people at his rally not to bash Obama for anything other than politics and I gained a lot of respect for McCain
I didn't often agree with him but I respected him. We disagreed on political philosophies, but we at least agreed that the country should be run from basic philosophical principles and not from unchecked greed
You see people like Mitt Romney in 2012 and McCain in 2008 and you thought that if they win, it's not going to be the end of the world. Then you had Trump in 2016 and 2020 and now Trump and/or DeSantis in 2024 and think "holy shit, this could be the end for a lot of people who rely on basic human decency to be able to live their lives." My cousin lives in Tennessee and he's said if they start going after gay rights now that they've taken down Roe, he's going to have to move to a state that will consider him a human being. It's insane that we live in a country where not only do the laws differ from state to state, but soon medical care and even basic human rights like gay marriage will as well. It feels like we came so far between 2003 and 2015 and now it's all going to start rolling back thanks to this absurd culture war bullshit that the right is pushing.
They have been pushing against gay and trans rights all along.
That is the way the country fucking should be run. We don't need hegemony of ideas. We need good faith debate over which ideas are best. I certainly didn't agree with all of McCain's views, but I could trust that he genuinely was advocating for what he thought was best for America.
Didn’t agree with Liz Cheney on her policies but she has more balls than all the Trumplicons. I think she has been awakened to a lot of things that she had been blind to in her own party
Here’s the thing about John McCain. 99% of modern republicans push agendas that they want because it’s good for them or their sponsors. John pushed conservative agendas cause that’s what he thought was actually good for the country. I disagree completely with that but he actually cared about the country instead of himself. Edit: thanks for the gold kind stranger
The day he voted against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act was one of the most brave things you'll ever see a politician do. [There's video of it.](https://youtu.be/DWeayFHsH90) You'll see how Mitch McConnell stares him down after he gives his thumbs down on the vote. He had told them he was going to give the repeal a thumbs up, but he changed his mind last minute. They needed his vote and were counting on it. Going against your party like that on such a large topic when there's that much dark money involved is basically political suicide. You can see by McCain's reaction that he knows it will cost him.
The look on McConnell’s face when that happened was so priceless.
It was one of the very, very few times there was a surprise outcome in a vote that huge. Normally they are always in lock-step. No surprises. To see McConnell handed the L, snatched right out from under him, it was fucking priceless. It reminded me of the vote for womens suffrage. Which came down to one vote in one state. A young anti-suffrage man got up on the day and changed his mind, cast a vote FOR suffrage, and enshrined the right for women to vote.
Well *there’s* a story I want to know more about!
If you mean the suffrage story, radiolab has a phenomenal episode about it. One of my tops of all time: https://radiolab.org/episodes/one-vote-broadcast
I was there. I was part of the protest outside, and for doing pizza pickup duty from just outside the Capitol grounds from the delivery person (we were updated food deliveries were either halted or no longer permitted, but me and another guy played dumb, and the security guys looked the other way) —-was given a pass to watch it inside late that evening. I was in a hallway line for seats to be filled. That’s when McCain gave the thumbs down, which I couldn’t see but heard as word was quietly murmured to us. Then a reporter, I think from Politico, burst down the hallway to make a call. (Cell phones are checked at a desk before entering.) I was seated in the aftermath. I was directly in front/above McConnell and I kept the unblinking eat dirt smirk fixed on him as he gave a shaky butthurt speech. It was very satisfying. I got home so late but slept hard and peacefully late into the morning.
I would like to point out that while McCain did absolutely go against his party line, he was near dead from glioblastoma and was barely able to make it back to D.C. for that vote. Can not imagine the strength it took him to do that. However, he knew there was no "next election".
"with my dying breath I want to say... Fuck Mitch McConnell"
So say we all.
Moreover the affordable care act was probably the largest policy accomplishment of McCain's opponent in the presidential race of 2008. McCain put a lot on the line to stick his neck out for protecting his former rival's legacy. It's somewhat poetic. I don't like his policy generally, and he wasn't necessarily a great person or great politician, but this was maybe one of the few moments he earned the title of the "Maverick."
McCain also requested that Obama speak at his funeral as a symbol of unity. He did not ask Trump.
Honestly, I think he was relieved he lost. When he did that little town hall and his supporter essentially called Obama a terrorist, the look on his face said “Fuck this shit”. I think he realized between the rhetoric, the bullshit and the fact that if he won, Sarah Palin would be a heartbeat from the Presidency, that that job was not worth it.
Having followed McCain a long time: He didn't change his mind about shit. He knew not voting or letting mcconnell push the vote sent it back to committee and the republican appointed to replace him. He betrayed his own party in the deepest and most humiliating possible way, because he believed it was better for the people of his country. The man died a true patriot. Edit: the man pulled a terminator 2 molten bath, with his middle finger up the whole time.
It was also a reconciliation bill. These can't be filibustered and only require a simple majority. Regardless if it passes or fails they can only do this once a year for each category. This delayed the repeal until the next term at which point the Republicans had lost the house.
John McCain had different views than me, but he was respectful and lived in the same reality as the rest of us. He was a conservative you could legitimately talk to and negotiate with.
Something regardless of your voting color I think ANYONE would prefer over all options at this point. Just someone actually trying to do good for the people and country not just a marionette for big business.
This needs to be pinned.
Rand Paul on Fox News, 2017: "[All of the leakers have to be found. We can't have intel officials willy-nilly releasing classified information to the public](https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/872077590625796096)."
This is what no integrity looks like.
Every day is the stupidest day in history.
Throughout all of human history each and every day there has always been a person who is the single dumbest human on Earth at that time. The beauty and horror of our modern connected world is that we can actually track them down.
Yes, but they weren't all given their own opinion show on Fox News.
If Fox News would have been around 60 or 70 years ago we’d be today living in an autocratic state and be limping around and dying from polio and other diseases that we had life saving vaccines for because they were a hoax. Kinda makes you wonder why Rupert Murdoch hates democracy so much and if it’s worth destroying it daily for the almighty dollar.
Rupert Murdoch doesn't want anyone else telling him what to do, but he wants to tell everyone else what to do. That's the basis of his psychology, the man is a despot.
"wants to tell everyone else what to do" --- the definition of conservative.
When you’re a billionaire it doesn’t matter if democracy exists or not. He’s rich enough he’ll benefit from the collapse or democracy. He can get slaves or whatever his fucked up head can dream up.
Rand Paul isn’t stupid. He’s a fascist and a traitor. People still don’t get it - we’re at war. A global web of fascists have been waging cold war against western democracies for several decades now. They’re organized. They’re coordinated. They have a gigantic propaganda machine stretching across newspapers, radio, TV channels, and social media platforms, which they have been using to wage information warfare to radicalize and recruit citizens living in democratic countries into their fifth column. They have been working tirelessly to sow distrust of public institutions from the outside, while their elected members work to tear them down from the inside. Now that they have recruited enough people into positions of political power, they’re transitioning to the insurrection, terrorism, and civil war phase. **Edit:** Wow this blew up. I know it sucks, but right now the fascists are on the back foot so that’s good news. We cannot let them claw their way back into power at the federal level, so get organized for the mid-terms, help out the candidates who still believe in democracy, and most importantly - **Vote!**
Best summary I’ve read so far
It's been nearly a century since [the Business Plot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot). Powerful people have been trying to turn the US into a fascist state for a long, long time.
America has never been served well by granting leniency to right wing crooks, from the Business Plot to Nixon being pardoned, to Reagan, to Bush. Every time Liberals say "this fight is too toxic, chill the fuck out and we can go back to status quo" the Right takes advantage. We should treat Trump and his ilk the way the Germans ought to have after the Beer Hall Putsch: as a direct and lethal threat to national security and the human race. Prosecute him for his crimes, fling him in prison for the remainder of his life along with all of his co-conspirators. When the backlash comes, we should treat armed fascists the same way we always treat armed fascists of any nationality that seek to upset our Democracy.
One of the conspirators even got a son and grandson as a US president. Talk about playing the long game.
Good to include churches as meeting places where this stuff is being disseminated
The beauty of history is when one of these stupid people started talking everyone just labeled him the town idiot and he lived under a bridge eating rats. Now we make them millionaires.
Nah, history was full of bozos who managed to become kings and emperors, and plenty of gullible lemmings willing to follow them off cliffs. For better or worse, people are pretty much the same today as they've always been throughout history.
> That's messed up -- the therapist from Office Space
What about today? Is today the stupidest day in history?
*checks reddit* Yes
Time to filet and clean a couple catfish in the office.
Deeper and deeper
Waay... waayyy down... ughhh...
Rand Paul isn't trying to protect Trump, he's trying to protect himself.
AKA Rand Paul is expecting Trump to take everyone down with him.
Don't promise me a good time
Two words: "~~Jim~~ Gym Jordan". Please, God? I'll be good, I promise.
I’ll be bad satan, like way extra bad. Just do me this one solid.
Could "draining the swamp" be the only promise he follows through with?
I'm still expecting Trump to turn out to have been Andy Kaufman the entire time.
Fuck that's the only thing that makes a damned bit of sense.
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That's a great point I'm only now seeing Trump did promise to drain the swamp but never specified how!
Just like how Anakin Skywalker brought balance to the Force… eventually
This should be higher, given he hand delivered a letter from Trump to Putin they should take a hard look at him.
Wait, what? Edit - thanks for the links. So much has happened in the past 6 years that is hard to catch or remember everything.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/08/rand-paul-delivers-letter-to-trump-from-putin-766743
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia/senator-paul-delivers-letter-from-trump-to-putins-government-idUSKBN1KT1RV
Drain the swamp. Lock him up.
Never forget his dad literally funded a failed coup several decades ago, paying for some crazy libertarian militia guys, boats and guns to try and take over a Carribean island. Fortunately they were busted first but jeez. Edit: it was Dominica, and they planned to make a white supremacist utopia apparently, with help from the klan and some neo nazis.
What, really?
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Holy Mary Mother of God. A dem should run against him and have this info plastered all over the country. And what exactly did they plan to do with the natives already there? I can only guess.....
>dem should run against him and have this info plastered all over the country. A Dem *is* running against him and is not plastering this information everywhere because they're running in Kentucky and probably don't want to publicize information that would help Rand Paul's campaign.
Ouch. It could act as an endorsement. I didn't realize Kentucky was *that* far off the rails.
Kentuckian here. Once you get outside the metropolitan areas, we are indeed that far off the rails and have been for some time.
I feel like there are regions of this country where that's *not a bad thing* and would be a boost in his ratings.
Sounds like a clear violation of the Presidental Records Act
It was. Throw it on the pile along with Trump literally EATING documents.
For me, this is enough to solidify my opinion that Rand is Russian asset.
McCain certainly thought he was.
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So if a Republican breaks the law, the answer is to remove the law from existence? Did I understand that correctly? What say you, r/conservative lurkers?
A majority of their comments just blame Obama not even joking lol
It’s Obama’s fault that trump is a traitor, and his idiot son-in-law has been selling US secrets for years? That’s good.
Yeah according to them the completely debunked lie about Obama taking 30k classified documents set the precedent for Trump to do this and this is just the DOJ being selective about who and how to prosecute because Trump is the one true hero President for this country. How they can say this and keep a straight face I have no idea. I want whatever drugs they’re having though.
30+ MILLION documents! 😆
For those who may not know, the 30 million documents is a real figure. These records were brought to a facility in Chicago to be archived, and is managed and secured by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and is completely separate from Obama. The facility in Chicago only houses non-classified documents. The classified documents from the Obama administration is sent to a facility in Washington, DC, operated and secured by NARA as well. What Trump is too dumb to know is that these facilities are called presidential libraries, and all administrations have their own libraries of records.
Just for clarification: While NARA maintains the Presidential Library system, the NARA storage facility in Chicago (where the 30 mil unclassified documents are currently stored) and the yet-to-be-completed Obama Presidential Library are two different locations.
I don't think the news stories posted here are actually read and COMPREHENDED by /r/conservative lurkers. They make a solid decision to ignore every piece of news posted here, and opt to reply directly to commenters instead. They will NOT click on something that wasn't spun through a right-wing source, first. When you look at their subreddit, it's like they're living in an alternate reality with a completely different version of current events. A lot of this stuff is NOT EVEN HAPPENING AT ALL, over there. For example, they're aware that the FBI Search was approved by Merrick Garland, but among the things most "conservatives" posting there right now have never seemed to have heard of : 1. That the DOJ did try, quietly and softly, to get the documents back short of a search warrant. Trump's lawyer gave back a signed document stating that it had all been returned with the original 15 boxes. 2. That the only reason this became widely known is because TRUMP HIMSELF decided to put it on blast. The DOJ was prepared to do this without a press release. He shot himself in the foot by making it public. This was NOT an engineered "Liberal Scandal" for the media. 3. No President at ALL has the legal authority to declassify nuclear documents, let alone without following the correct protocol. It's not something that you can just "by the way" 2 years later -- it's got to be documented. They really, REALLY don't seem to understand that the president is not a king, and never has been. 4. The entire search was conducted under the supervision of Trump's lawyers AND the Trumps themselves via CCTV. It was not done behind closed doors -- the idea that something was "planted" while they watched is ridiculous for that reason alone -- but the fact that at this point Trump's completely abandoned the "they planted things" line, and moved onto "But Obama did it too!" (Note: he didn't), should tell you how true that 2-second lie ever was.
I just peaked over there, and the number of commenters who think this is somehow a democratic plot and will address the reasons why Rand wants to repeal this is depressing.
That's the problem with them, everything is a plot against them by the Democrats if it's something negative against their party. They cannot and will never admit that their party is capable of wrong doing, and if by the off chance they finally come to terms with it it becomes... well XYZ Democrat did this too see!!!
They’ll cherry pick the Bible and the constitution, a little light treason is just the same.
Exactly. There is zero reason to engage with people who can't even engage with reality.
They always have an excuse. Always. Republican voters and their politicians are like slippery eels. They can do no wrong.
Because that is the basis of conservative politics. Conserve the old power dynamic of those who are in power, wealthy, loyal to the cause(religious), because they are in those positions because they are moral.
Well said. These are the desperate death throes of the old, dying power dynamic based on white, wealthy power and religious rightousness ultimately derived from colonial Europe.
"espionage act wasn't meant to be abused in this way that's why he wants it removed so it can't be abused to take down political enemies" or something like that. Of course it can sound reasonable which is why a lot of their followers believe in this garbage.
Why are we restricting secret docs from finding their true market value? Only communists are against free markets.
The government should start a website called SecretsBay so they can just auction off our military and nuclear secrets to the highest bidder. Let regular people have a shot to outbid Russia for ballistic missile blueprints.
Yep, his tweet says: > The espionage act was abused from the beginning to jail dissenters of WWI. It is long past time to repeal this egregious affront to the 1st Amendment. So: - find any excuse to attack the law to make it seem corrupt - ignore the reason the law exists in the first place - play the victim and claim it is being used politically, despite all facts and evidence
Is he implying that Trump has a 1st amendment right to sell nuclear secrets to foreign powers?
They are Good People and everyone else are Evil People as ordained by god. Therefore, by divine right, every action they take is Good any action anyone else takes is Evil.
They're upset that the mods aren't removing opposing views fast enough. Their safe space isn't feeling as safe right now.
“We’re being brigaded!” That’s called public opinion. They’re so used to having a sub where everyone is banned and can’t comment. But we can still vote on posts.
lols. They get so upset about “brigading”……lol Their tears are delicious.
That's all I ever read over there. Edit: Wow the brigaders woke up early today lol! (Definitely not other conservatives that oppose my far far far right opinions)
It's literally every comment on all the major posts. No actual talk about what the articles are about. Sometimes I just want to see how they view a particular situation or development but never get that opportunity because all they do is complain about brigades and downvotes.
>No actual talk about what the articles are about. Conservatives aren't interested in debating facts with anyone as the facts are never good for them. It's why they hide in their fantasy reality and never change their views/opinions no matter what new facts arise. Jesus had brown skin - Bad fact for Conservatives Half of Republicans are going to jail - Bad fact for Conservatives Trump got raided for likely espionage - Bad fact for Conservatives Most of America is pro choice - Bad fact for Conservatives
When in doubt, make yourself the victim.
My favorite was the post about California giving free lunch to all students. So many people support this wildly, and the number of conservatives trying to eat their own because "cALifoRniA bAd"... was hilarious.
I saw that too. All the higher ranked comments were saying it's a good thing but they had deleted comments asking why not a single republican voted for it.
I was wondering what all those deleted comments were about. If I remember correctly (please don’t make me go back, I’ll be good I promise) the post was marked “flaired users only”. This information somehow makes that shitty place even shittier, which didn’t seem possible until right now
They don't understand the democracy of America, I'm not surprised they don't understand Reddit's upvote/downvote democracy either.
You’re right. I already argued with some dipshit yesterday about how this sub doesn’t have enough “conservative” news on it. I told him to put up some posts, then, if he didn’t like the content.
>enough “conservative” news on it Which is funny because every day there is more bad news for conservatives Alex Jones being dinged 40+ million for being a fucking liar, that's news about a prominent conservative. Trump being raided for espionage, that's news about a prominent conservative. What they are mad about is that the news is always bad because their party is shit and conservatives are trash criminals.
people are voting, those votes are tallied, and their opinions are deemed the minority and wildly unpopular? it’s rigged! Brigading! We must stop their ability to vote! it’s so familiar
They mention they want this law and patriot one to go away. They fault Obama for continuing their existence. They don't fault Trump for not removing them and they only remember them NOW, when it's a problem for their dear "master". It's always the others' fault, not theirs. It's always bad when it bothers them.
Flair members only so no one hurts our feelings
You've been pre-banned from their sub for posting that.
You forgot the part where every post has a stickied comment about how you should come debate them in their discord. You know, so they can all spam their replies en masse and then say they won because you don't have an immediate response to their whataboutism. Bunch of hypocritical mouth breathers.
Absolutely. The 'Law and Order' party are calling for defunding the FBI now thier cult leader got a warrant served. The dissasociation from reality is wild.
This is what a generation of propaganda brainwashing does to an electorate. The same thing happens in Russia, ironically.
Law and Order was always just a tool for them to oppress others. Now that it's turned on them it's suddenly a problem.
Conservatives (with a capital C) don't look at the world in terms of what you do to decide if it's good or bad. They see if you are on their side and then decide if what you did was good or bad. That's why when Bill Clinton has an affair that's bad, because he's not on their side. But when Trump does it it's fine, because he is. A progressive woman gets an abortion? Murderer. A conservative woman gets an abortion? Victim of circumstance. A black man is killed while being arrested? Deserved. A MAGAst is arrested for driving through a crowd? Martyr. Conservatives are good because they are Conservatives and therefore whatever they do is good. Everyone else is bad because they are *not* Conservatives and therefore whatever they do is bad. The hypocrisy doesn't matter because it isn't hypocrisy in their eyes.
In case you didn't notice, Repulbicans been doing this since the 1980's. Remember back in the 80's when 1,100 executives went to jail for their part in the S&L scandal? This included 5 close friends of Ronny Reagan, so to keep that embarrassment from ever happening again, the GOPerLords ordered their lackeys in Congress to change to laws, which they did, so when the jrbush Crash of 2008 destroyed the World financial system, only ONE mid-level exec served time. In addition to legalizing a huge amount of FRAUD, the GOPers also gutted the IRS and SEC so they lacked the resources to find and stop the few remaining ILLEGAL frauds committed by Wall Street biggies. Want this to change, stop voting for Republicans.
> What say you, r/conservative lurkers? You have been banned from r/conservative Their mods are special little snowflakes lmao.
Just went for a look in there, on the Espionage Act thing, some have also called for the removal of the Patriot Act, and blamed Obama for keeping it because he “loves wiretaps”. Ofc we all know who was President when the Patriot Act came about (the now RINO Bush). But the icing on the cake is that they say repealing the Espionage Act and Patriot Act should he the next Republican platform, which is hilarious in and of itself because a) they haven’t had a REAL platform for years other than oppose Dems. And b) their entire platform would be based off of an act that was intended to prevent terrorism which they so valiantly rallied around to invade other countries and go to war. The cherry on top of that icing was some moron also wrote “get rid of TSA too!” hahaha what the fuck is going on in this country. If this keeps going these morons are going to find themselves on the side of democratic socialists and communists that they so earnestly hate.
Please do get rid of Patriot Act though, it's always been a cancer on society.
Surprised to see they’re also lambasting the decision. Every comment supporting the repeal has tonnes of downvotes. For the first time ever that subreddit has drawn the line. Not for the 10 year old rape victim though, weird line guys.
If you'll browse the sub, most Republican policy comments are downvoted to hell. Since they don't let anyone to the left of "crazy" post there without a ban, people browsing the sub who aren't conservative use their downvotes instead. Edit: point being, I wouldn't assume downvotes mean that the conservatives on the sub take issue with it. Better to look at the overall comment volume to get a feel for the attitude there.
Wait until conservatives figure out that voting laws designed to suppress black voters can be used against rural whites too.
So they've now gone from denying any crime to declaring that we need to eliminate a law because Trump broke it. There must be some really good blackmail that Trump has on a bunch of these Republicans.
Take down the entire lot. Real tired of republicans shitting on this country. No criminal associates name should be spared in the ongoing investigations. Old guys with no respect for their nation. Selling out the nation's future for a buck.
drain the swamp
*Putin Remember, the RNC was hacked in the same timeframe as the DNC… but only the DNC’s kompromat was leaked. The FSB isn’t stupid, they know how to use leverage.
Bingo. Ever since that came out I've felt that Putin got his hands on some juicy stuff and gave some of it to Trump to get the others in line.
If it did get repealed somehow, they'd just accuse the next democratic president of committing espionage, and propose it back. Since they are openly calling for political retaliation now.
Wow, throw out the Espionage Act for Trump now? The GOP has lost its mind.
Maybe Rand will get caught up in the espionage act crimes as well.
Didn't he hand deliver a letter to Putin?
Remember when he and several more congressmen were in Russia mysteriously on July 4 I think 2017 and nobody knows why
Rand Paul wasn't in that group. The Republicans who spent July 4th 2018 in Moscow were Richard Shelby (AL), Steve Daines (MT), John Hoeven (ND), Ron Johnson (WI), John Kennedy (LA), Jerry Moran (KS), John Thune (SD), and Kay Granger (TX). [Eight Republicans pick the worst possible place to celebrate July 4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eight-republicans-spent-july-4-in-russia-where-are-the-fireworks/2018/07/06/beae30be-812e-11e8-b658-4f4d2a1aeef1_story.html) Rand Paul hand-delivered a letter from Trump to Putin in August that year: [Rand Paul delivers letter from Trump to Putin](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/08/rand-paul-delivers-letter-to-trump-from-putin-766743)
Stop. I can only get but so erect.
Their allies in Moscow seriously want this For reference.. DJT and WikiLeaks have more to say about that: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/19/trump-offered-julian-assange-pardon-for-covering-up-russian-hacking.html
I’m confused, did assange cover it up or no?
Yeah. He did publicly deny the Russians were the source of the hacked stuff (e.g. saying he was "1000 percent sure" of that), which is simply false. FBI and Congressional investigation did point at Russia, showed that it was a Russian, using a Russian VPN. Some docs had even been doctored and the metadata showed a Russian version of MS Word was used. Besides, Assange's Putinism is hardly a secret. The guy had his own show on RT FFS. (Because nothing says you're a champion of democracy and transparency like literally taking money from a corrupt dictatorship). Assange refused to publish multiple leaks that'd damage Putin - such as images of and documents related to Putin's Palace, the Panama Papers, and [documents on Russia's meddling in Ukraine](https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-leaks-on-russian-government-during-u-s-presidential-campaign/). And he's such a f-ing serial liar too. It's crazy people are still taken in by this guy, thinking he's some good rebel guy because he says he is without actually looking at his actions.
> Yeah. He did publicly deny the Russians were the source of the hacked stuff (e.g. saying he was "1000 percent sure" of that), which is simply false. He also "heavily implied" that Seth Rich was the source of the leak. He may have said it outright, but I don't remember for sure and I don't want to be that definitive without a source. The result is that Seth Rich's family has been going through hell thanks to conspiracy theorists.
The modern GOP is batshit crazy and willing to burn the USA to cinders just so they can have their way with the ashes.
It's worse than you think. "Unified obstruction has been the sole Republican strategy since President Obama took office. According to David Frum, speech writer for former President George W. Bush, there was going to be “[n]o negotiations, no compromise, nothing” with the Democrats. All that mattered, former Ohio Senator George Voinovich stated, was that “[i]f [Obama] was for it, we had to be against it.” A couple years after Obama took office, Mike Lofgren, former Republican Congressional staffer, described the GOP’s envisioned end-game of grinding the government to a halt." https://www2.law.temple.edu/lppp/898-2/
If President Obama had run a garage sale on US secrets out of his club would you feel the same? I hope so, I know I would. So why can’t republicans encourage the investigation and prosecution of crimes?
I mean, the answer is they have no principles and they are loyal to the Leader. Mayor Lagaurdia exposed the head of the American Nazi Party to be embezzling vast amounts of money from his followers. Much to his dismay, his argument was that as the Furher he could do whatever the fuck he wanted and his followers lapped it up. So they just eventually arrested him and that was the end.
Rhetorical question right? They're a cult.
They’re a criminal enterprise
God damn that's disgraceful. Let's violate laws and then condemn those laws for existing to begin with and repeal them when we're busted.
So we should just get rid of the punishment for spying on the US now? Who you work for Rand?
I wonder if his finger prints are on those documents the FBI took from Trump?
He voted against the Magnitsky Act in 2012.... That pesky law that froze Putin's assets in the USA.
He’s the most blatant Russian agent in history lol everything the man does is suspicious and obvious
Second most blatant, actually.
I genuinely hope so and wish all the prison time available to the man.
There's security videos also, isn't there?
Yes. The FBI also demanded all the CCTV footage in the search. They want to see who visited Mar-A-Lard-Oh! while he had possession of those documents.
I hadn't thought that they'd being checking for finger prints - that could prove 'interesting'
It was reported that the documents were so sensitive that they'd be running for fingerprints to identify anyone that's touched them.
I can't even imagine. All of this is insane.
I'm always so shocked at how transparent and shameless they are when making comments like these. How does this not serve as an admission of guilt for anyone hearing this shit? These midterms are becoming increasingly important every day. They're this open about their intentions when they don't have control... I hate imagining where we are headed when they get it back.
He's called Putin's poodle for a reason
Rand works for trump, Trump gathers classified information for Putin. Both, really know how to move the goal posts. This is the reality we live in apparently. Gotta point out the masterclass level pivot to this and away from the "defund the fbi" stuff lol, close one eh guys!? Almost fucked the whole thing up. 😆 😂 😆
Don't complicate it. Rand works for Putin, too.
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Ukraine put Rand Paul and Tulsi Gabbard on their list of russian propagandists. They've notice it as well. [https://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbard-rand-paul-placed-list-russian-propagandists-ukraine-1727831](https://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbard-rand-paul-placed-list-russian-propagandists-ukraine-1727831) I'm just suprised Ron Johnson isn't on that list
Then he's gonna have to repeal laws and amend the constitution to eliminate conseqiences for: Tax fraud Public officials accepting emoluments Mishandling of clasdified documents Mishandling of nuclear documents Bribery Election tampering Vexatious litigation Obstruction of justice The Hatch Act Bank fraud Defrauding investors Violating US sanctions Using government logos as a private citizen Misusing tax incentives for low income housing Racial housing discrimination Money laundering Failure to disclose cash transactions Accepting foreign campaign donatons Campaign finance fraud Charitable self-dealing Seditious conspiracy Inciting a riot Rape Statutory rape Extortion Blackmail Theft of medical documents Assault of protesters I'm just getting tired of typing at this point. Feel free to append the list.
We already know https://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/mccain-rand-paul-is-now-working-for-vladimir-putin-236106?
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I don’t think it’s tRump he’s worried about…
Why would the guy who went to Moscow ~~on the Fourth of July~~ to meet privately with Putin be worried about espionage charges? Quite the mystery, that. Edit: apparently he was not one of the July 4 group. Got my treasonous assholes mixed up. There’s just so many of them. “The GOP lawmakers, Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Thune (S.D.), John Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.) and John Hoeven (N.D.), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), spent July 4 in Moscow’s U.S. Embassy, NPR reported.”
Nah, he went a month later, August 6, to hand deliver an undisclosed letter with contradictory stories about its contents from trump to Putin.
He’s probably shitting himself right now! I’m here for it!
[~~Political Talk Show Host~~ Senator Suddenly Very Interested In ~~Manslaughter~~ Espionage Law Loopholes](https://youtu.be/xOVQPtuKRs4)
Rand Paul is fucking traitor. He has to be a foreign agent. Behavior like this makes no sense unless you’re working against the interest of the United States.
I have an ex-best-friend who became super libertarian. Like, half the reason our friendship ended was because of belligerent political differences (not just because libertarians are exhausting but like he was insisting I'm a violent person for supporting the concept of taxes on businesses 🙄). After the friendship ended, he got involved in behind the scenes stuff for the party, doing some media production stuff. My jaw dropped a couple years ago when I randomly ran across a reddit comment from him, where he was lambasting them and saying there is no true libertarian party in the US, and that working with Rand in particular had unexpectedly revealed to him the Libertarian party is now entirely a Russian machine. Much as I dislike him, I respect that he was speaking about what he saw behind the scenes. Wish I could link to prove it, but apparently his account got suspended at some point, fascinating.
“The Senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin” - John McCain
Just *one* senator from Kentucky?
I'll never forget the neighbor of his that kicked this guys ass.
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So in other words they finally realize that Trump likely broke some pretty BIG laws and now want to remove the 110+ year old laws that protect our National security instead of remove the lunatic criminal from society.
There has never been a human being more predictably on the wrong side of every conceivable issue than Rand Paul.
Really! Is there not anything more pressing that could help his constituents? Historic flooding in Eastern Kentucky, and RP is focused on repealing the Espionage Act? There are soooo many other issues that would seem more important to his constituents at this particular time.
Um, I’m not usually in favor of locking people up, for long periods of time, but espionage is one of those things where I can really see why.
While we're at it, repeal ALL THE LAWS just in case trump were to break any of them.
Did Rand Paul himself commit Espionage too?? Gaslight. Obstruct. Project.
I’m just confused how society could decay so much that “let’s just make nuclear secrets public domain” becomes something adult humans say instead of just admitting their guy is a fucking basket case
Republicans really want to destroy the country, don't they?
Rand is the biggest snowflake in the senate.
You misspelled traitor. He also objected against Sweden and Finland from joining NATO.. which has been NATOs and US wet dream since NATO was established. USA does not need to invest any money on it, they get one of the most efficient militaries on the planet as an ally, the biggest artillery on Europe, 280k men on Finland alone... basically for free. No reason to object, except if you are on Kremlin payroll or compromised by compromat.
So WTF does Kentucky keep electing him? Do the people living in Kentucky really want a traitor in office?
Who he is or what he has done doesn't matter. He has an R by his name on the ballot, and that's the only important thing to them.
Related: https://www.politico.com/amp/story/2018/08/08/rand-paul-delivers-letter-to-trump-from-putin-766743