Honestly, I don’t know the American law on that, but lying in an affidavit to the authorities will net you something between a very severe fine and up to three years in prison. As an aside lying to the court while under oath will get you into prison for ‘not under a year’, to a maximum of 15 years.
A false affidavit isn’t a joke and may well get the fake whistleblower prosecuted. But oh well, Trump can still pardon him.
I think it is a combination of being angry his deity lost, impulsiveness, and being thicker than my sister in laws custard, which is now awaiting patent as an organic cement alternative.
As soon as he told a family member / friend with half a brain that he made it up they probably told him to recant fast, because it would only get worse. Or slipped up to the investigators first question due to said custard like intelligence 
Also have you seen now they are offering a bounty of $1 million for any proof of voter fraud? Imagine that will create another massive wave of crank calls they will waste a fortune on investigating.
So Barr sees Donald (or other approved president) as Louis XIV, the Sun King.
Absolutism or death.
(My preference is death)
My guess would be that Barr needs a Donald, who has the delusion of grandeur necessary to see himself as all-powerful.
Barr was AG when Bush I. was president, but I think old George Bush wasn’t kingly enough 
The old kings are chosen by god schtick at least in England’s case was just more nonsense the catholic church fed to kings and paupers alike to make sure they could elicit control of the monarchy. After all they talk to the god, who has given these kings and queens divine right to their thrones so they have to keep the church onside.
Worked out pretty well for the church until Henry the viii came along and decided he wanted a divorce.
The fact that there are still people out there like Barr that think kings and presidents are appointed by god baffles me beyond comprehension.
I wonder how much politics will change when these old white dudes start dieing off and the next generation of old white dudes take over… 
or maybe we will get more then just old white dudes why is it always old white dudes?
A combination of implicit bias and demographics. Honestly, I’m more concerned currently about the lack of representation for the huge portion of America that’s atheist (23%) presently. There’s one atheist legislator as of the last time I checked.
The simpler problem of racial/gender makeup in Congress I expect to change as America becomes a majority minority nation, and already has to a massive degree.
Yeah, well, I saw a documentary once that helped me understand why he wanted that divorce:
Enlightenment reached far, but it didn’t reach everyone, obviously.
They have to mature in the trenches of party politics for a long time, til they’re ripe 
Kyrsten Sinema, if I’m not mistaken?
Which implies (although obviously not true) that 77% of America is theist. Estimates vary from 62-65% and it used to be higher (80%) but still extremely high.
The increase of secularism in the UK for example is substantially higher. Again, estimates vary but somewhere around a third.
It says it all about the catholic churches twisted moral ethics Cur when they are perfectly fine with him lopping off his wives heads, but god forbid he ever wants to put one on a donkey to the next village with a packed lunch and divorce papers.
Yeah, apparently there’s two now. The other is a lot let less ambiguous in admitting it too thankfully. Woo, 2 out of 535 total legislators between the two chambers to represent a quarter (or if Jefe is closer, a third) of the nation.
The honest truth is most forms of representation are either no longer worrisome in that they represent a significant enough portion of Congress to reasonably handle their job, and gain the benefits associated with a diverse background. Atheism is so opposed in America that despite the bigotry towards Muslims here, people will vote for them first.
To be fair I suppose, this doesn’t really occupy much of my attention, given huge swaths of actual political thought can’t make it into congress either due to the two party system, but it does point out that our Congress is grossly, grossly over-religious.
I don’t bash religion totally, as I believe humans are born with a primal sense of “spirituality” , but man, when it comes to it, a corrupt person just has to twist some words to create a zealous fired up army of geocide. Its ■■■■■■■ scary how a faith ment to make one a better person in a peaceful way can get weaponized so damn fast… and ALL faiths have blood on their hands because of how easily you can “weaponize” your followers.
I watched a haunting documentary on the iran/iraq war. REAL footage of people dying, and they were celebrating in their death throws that they are martyred, with their fellow solders cheering as well… A FEARLESS mob of faith embracing death as holy heroes.
It’s ■■■■■■■ dangerous and effective “tool” when used for evil.
In some cases, it was said monarch who was so insistent rather than any church denomination. After all, divine right did go out of fashion only to be dragged back kicking and screaming by a certain particularly flamboyant king. That did not end well (for him, anyway).
Uhm, well, in some places. Though as a rule around continental Europe at least, the clergy did their level best to remain in the centres of power.
So being dragged back kicking and screaming to furthermore pull in tithes and stand next to the thrones was probably not completely unwelcome.
More so the innate need to question that other animals don’t.
Spirituality implies a personal thing : between the self and one’s connection (real or imagined) with one’s higher power. Religion is just the end result of standardizing that across a cultural group for a variety of reasons.
At best it gives concrete direction for best life practices (Buddhism, although not a religion despite being relig-ified and Judaism, despite being obsolete) or genuine cultural cohesiveness (Judaism, Islam - to a much lesser degree).
At worst? God where to start?
Myth making (Christianity, OT) ; deification of mortals (all four, including Buddha), which leads to a spiritual hierarchy in which the end-user must supplicate and defer to arbitrarily chosen “superiors” for fear (emphasis) of divine retribution ; intrinsic xenophobia (crusades, jihad, missionary work) ; etc.
Obviously for the topic at hand, it’s the way it’s inveigled itself into law making. Shariah law, canon law specifically. Is there some bizarre Baptist version? The issue is that these are not bringing in any of the “at best” principles. And how can you? Spirituality basically gives you “strive to always be a good person to yourself and others”. Period. Which fails utterly once you start putting conditions on it. Hardly helpful when there’s a trade or resource dispute.
So bashing religion? I’m afraid they’re all too preposterous now to be of any true value. Even Buddhism has become a bit of a joke despite the fact that its core is untainted.
You got the details correct for sure. I skipped out some of them, especially the spirituality and religion differences. I’m a very spiritual person, and look at the figureheads of some religions as ascended masters and nothing more, as I fear their words have been so twisted over the centuries that now there is these… corrupted figureheads…See the supply side Jesus comic for an example.
I think it’s about time these organised religions are called out for what they are. The most successful organised crime syndicates in history. Who legally pay no taxes so you can’t even nail them for tax fraud like Al Capone.
We think of the Vatican as the oldest, most powerful, and wealthiest cartel in the world. Its net worth is somewhere north of $10 billion.
Chump change. Obscene yes but when you consider Kenneth Copeland is on his own worth $300+million (estimates are actually as high as $850m), they’ve clearly got exposure problems. (Incidentally, keeping it on topic, Copeland has neatly inveigled his way into Trump’s camp and has indeed exerted an influence on American politics).
Sarcasm aside, if you ever want a good indicator of a person’s “spiritual worth”, it’s inverse to the amount of money they have…which makes Copeland one of the most disgusting and worthless humans on the planet.
Got to double post here, but this needs to be separate.
Have you guys seen what’s happened in Hong Kong?
Earlier this week, China’s central government granted Hong Kong’s government special authority to remove members of its Legislative Council who are deemed insufficiently loyal to Beijing because of their support for Hong Kong independence or their refusal to recognize China’s sovereignty over the region.
Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing government, led by Chief Executive Carrie Lam, promptly used the new powers to disqualify four pro-democracy legislators who had previously called for foreign governments to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China.
In response to the removal of their colleagues, Hong Kong’s 15 remaining pro-democracy lawmakers said they would resign in protest, effectively giving pro-Beijing forces free reign in the city’s legislature.
Would resign? Did resign.
Now Beijing and Lam have HK all to themselves. I realize it was inevitable though
I mean… not really? Treaty enforcement might have stopped it, it just wasn’t ever likely to happen. The whole situation is kind of the equivalent of how Trump acts on a country level except with actual competence (which is a disturbing thought actually). They keep basically saying, “yes, we ignore our agreements, habitually attack you, and are getting worse, but are you actually going to do anything to stop us? If not, we don’t care.”
