Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

It's Republican Laundromat Time!

By limiting donor disclosure to the IRS, they have limited any ability to prevent Russia and Russian oligarchs to launder, unlimited, undisclosed and illegal contributions though advocacy groups into federal elections.
- Fred Wertheimer, Democracy 21

It's apparently not just the NRA who owns the bribe-sponging sell-out politicians who are euphemistically called our Representatives. Things with the NRA have gotten a lot more interesting lately, although, you'd hardly know it if you followed the corporate news instead of just doing the simple task of deductively connecting some dots. Here are the dots:

1. The Republican Party relies heavily on "campaign contributions" from the NRA to help fund their candidates. This we have known for ages, of course. It's a key reason why nothing is done by republicans about our nation's little gun problem; other than to offer insincere "thoughts and prayers" any time some nut lays waste to a group of what Washington just calls (dismisses) "ordinary Americans" who are just trying to go about their lives.

2. The case of Maria Butina, a Russian spy who the NRA welcomed with open arms, being arrested has thrown a fresh spotlight on the fact that the NRA takes in a ton of cash from Russian organizations and oligarchs. In fact, the NRA has been working hand in hand with a similar organization in Russia that is just a dummy organization set up with the goal of infiltrating the NRA and therefore our elections. Not all hacking of the system is done via the internet.

3. The Republican Party's reaction to the spy arrest news? The Trump Administration has now decreed that the NRA no longer has to reveal the sources of the dark money they receive.

4. So, the questions anyone with an inquiring mind would naturally want to ask are:

a) How much of the $30 Million that the NRA contributed to the Trump/Pence 2016 campaign came from Russia?

b) Isn't this obviously why Republicans, from Trump, Pence, McConnell, and Ryan on down, are so ready to come to the defense of their Russian friends at the expense of the country and constitution they swore an oath to protect?

c) Is this why Putin's favorite congressman (except for, maybe, Speaker Paul Ryan) Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is so well-regarded by the Kremlin that Russian intelligence gave him a code name?

d) Just how many millions of Russian rubles is the NRA laundering and passing on to republican politicians for their campaigns and to do the bidding of Putin and the Russian mob while protecting their Manchurian President and how much has Russia already ear-marked for 2018 and 2020?

I keep waiting for this story to break. I say that with a tone of snark. Maybe they think "it's too soon to talk about this." I'm not holding my breath over it, but I guess that the corporate media will not ask these questions unless the companies that advertise with them decide that coverage of this hidden in plain sight story of treachery and treason will sell more fast cars, fast food and fast acting pharmaceuticals. And, likely, not even then. After all, if the NRA has been infiltrated by Russian spies and money, why not the corporate boardrooms of multi-nationals? Ever wonder how many shares of stock in the controlling companies of the corporate media and their advertising sponsors Russians might own?