The things they were accusing Hillary of doing - but also, usually, worse.
We’re going to find out that someone in the Trump administration was actually running a child exploitation ring before long, at this rate.
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Some key messages have already been disclosed.
“Dear AOL Support. My name is Governor Mike Pence. I recently noticed that I am still being billed for AOL, which I have not used since 1997. Please could you close my account and refund me for the unused months. Thanks, on behalf of the great state of Indiana. – Mike”
“Dear AOL Support. I wrote to you last month to ask you to close my account, but I have not heard back from you. I’ve just seen that I’ve been billed again. Please close my account now. – Mike Pence”
“Attn: AOL Support. I just saw your reply to my message, in which you say that you cannot refund me because I have recently used my account. I used my account to send YOU a message asking you to close my account. Please close the account now and do not bill me any more. – Mike Pence”
“Dear ‘Robert’ … if that is really your name … the reason that I did not complete the Account Closure Process in the 30 day period is because my modem was busy the entire time downloading twenty years worth of spam advertising ‘tactical flashlights’ and timeshares. In fact, I think it’s still busy, and my nephew tells me that at 9600 baud (whatever that is) it may take until the early 2050s just to catch up with the backlog. I also wish to complain about some of the messages that have already successfully downloaded. I assure you that I have no interest in meeting any “hot gay bears for steamy sex hookups”. Other messages – I am sure you know the ones I mean – refer to a strictly private matter that is between Mrs Pence and myself. Moreover, the Lord has given me the body that I have, according to his purposes, and it would be sinful of me to try to change it. I find it disturbing that AOL delivers this type of material to subscribers and I will be conferring with my advisors to see if anything can be done. Close my account. – Mike Pence.”
“To Whom It May Concern. Please find attached the draft text of the ‘Indiana Internet Practices Regulatory Bill’. Please pay special attention to subsection 47b, which specifies penalties of up to $500,000/day for any Internet service provider that fails to close the account of an elected public official when requested. This bill will become law very shortly; I recommend that you CLOSE MY ACCOUNT NOW to avoid heavy potential penalties. – Gov. Mike Pence.”
“Just close my account. I never wanted it in the first place. My daughter set it up sometime in the mid 1990s because she said I needed to get on the Internet. I don’t even know how it works. I’ve barely used it. Also, my carport is full of those goddamn CDs of yours. After you close my account, please send a U-Haul and two big guys to take them all away. Do that for me and we won’t say any more about Subsection 47b or the money you’ve already billed me. Thanks, Mike Pence.”
“Attention Internet Terrorists! Close my account, and stop billing me, or I will call out the Indiana National Guard. This is your last warning. – Governor Mike Pence.”
“Dear AOL. It appears that I may have inadvertently clicked ‘Reply’ while reading an email message, and mistakenly ordered a product that I did not want. Is it possible for you to delete an email after it has been sent? The subject line of the message was “Doctor Humungo-Bull XXX the Stud Enhancer SPECIAL TRIAL OFFER”, and it was sent to ‘supersizeme@aol.com’. I would be grateful if you could confirm that this message has been deleted. Also, the message may contain my credit card information, so I would like you to treat it as confidential. Thank you for your help – Mike Pence.”
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Another government official whose use of private email was perfectly legal: Hillary Clinton. She violated no laws, department rules, or even state department standard procedures.
And yes, she used a separate system for classified information.
Also, her email server wasn’t hacked, which puts it above the State Department’s own email servers. And Pence’s.
It’s good to keep in mind that this is basically Republicans 101: whatever bad thing you’re doing, just point at your opponent and shout “No U!” It works because they control most of the 4th estate.
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That was what I was going to point out to illustrate how Pence’s “tech solution” was worse…
I believe that’s called “The Miss America Pageant”
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I wonder if wants to be friends on MySpace? I’ll have to AltaVista him.
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Yes, exactly! Seems like this should be the focus on the story on Sessions, not the lying angle which feeds into the fantasy that he can be deposed but, hey, let’s keep pulling this Russia thread.
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His Geocities website is really cool.
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While it’s somewhat debatable if he perjured himself under oath verbally (lied, more or less. Withheld information, absolutely,) he most definitely perjured himself in his very clear written answer (“No.”) to a similar question:
“Several of the President-elect’s nominees or senior advisers have Russian ties. Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day?”
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Thanks. Had not read that bit. Yes, pretty direct lying there.
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Lock him up! Lock him up! (That’s what we shout when this happens, right guys?)
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When you parse the language of Franken’s question?
Franken: CNN has just published a story—and I’m telling you this, uh, about a news story that’s just been published. I’m not expecting you to know whether or not it’s true or not. But CNN just published a story alleging that the intelligence community provided documents to the president-elect last week that included information that, quote, “Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.” These documents also allegedly state, quote, “There was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.” Now, again, I’m telling you this as it’s coming out, so… uh… you know. But if it’s true, it’s obviously extremely serious. And if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?
Is this not the question we’re talking about? Franken: “What will you do if this stuff is true?”
Here’s Sessions’s “answer.”
Sessions: Senator Franken, I’m not aware of, uh, any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I didn’t have—not have communications with the Russians. Um, and I’m unable to comment on it.
Note that he didn’t answer the question that Franken asked. Instead, he volunteered that he hadn’t had “communications” with “the Russians.”
Is there another part of their exchange I should be looking at? I hope there is, because it’s been driving me crazy that everyone’s talking about the various ways “Franken’s question” can be interpreted. Which… no. Not if the above is the question we’re all talking about.
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What kind of data retention laws does Indiana have, if any?
I don’t see how using a private email could comply with the laxest of standards.
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When I figrst saw the image the thing that came immediately to mind was, “that is a picture of 80+ African Americans who are being lied to–I bet they know it, but they have enough integrity to show up and see what trump is selling. I hope we get a good after-action report on what is obviously yet another con-job…”
That’s the shot.
Chaser:
As for dipshit Pence…
Frankly, I don’t think Pence’s hypocrisy needs a qualifier to explain how much it stands out (even among an entire administration of stand-out fuckups). That said…
https://twitter.com/bitchyologist/status/837697646290681857
Example #235965 that the trump admin is never to be trusted. I’m almost amazed that trump is still being covered since nothing he says is true. Or, to put it another way, Politifact rated that 70% of his public statements have been false. How. The. Fuck can the largest economy in the world be run by someone like that? It’s not like this is some kind of jokey BB poll…
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BUT…He got a free disc in the mail! 16yrs ago.
Unfortunatly this is the conservative MO. Are they anti-gay? Yep they solicit people in airport bathrooms. Are they defenders of the “traditional family”? yep, they are on their 3 wife leaving the first two when they got sick. etc. They fuck up society because of their own issues.
In 2016 is anyone else on AOL? It is practically a private email server…
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Fair point; Franken asked a valid open ended question:
“IF this is true, what will YOU, the AG, do about it?”
Sessions reply was to try to dodge the question, and to deflect from himself, which inadvertently made him look incredibly suspicious, instead… especially since Senator Franken didn’t even ask about Sessions’ own potential involvement.
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Exactly! And it was actually a total softball!
“What will I do? If anyone has been found to have broken the law, I will make sure they’re prosecuted.”
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Right?
Instead, he just made himself look guilty as fuck.
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Isn’t that kind of their thing though? Like the loudest anti-gay republican of the moment gets caught having an affair with one or more guys. The family values anti-choice republican gets caught forcing mistress to have an abortion. The very vocal anti-drug republican has a major drug addiction.
It seems this is how people in the repressive republican regime cry out for help or confess to feel better or I don’t know why they do what they do…
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