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President Trump's former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the F.B.I. about conversations with the Russian ambassador last December during the presidential transition, bringing the special counsel's investigation into the president's inner circle.
Mr. Flynn, who appeared in federal court in Washington, acknowledged that he was cooperating with the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into Russian interference in the 2016 election. His plea agreement suggests that Mr. Flynn provided information to prosecutors, which may help advance the inquiry.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/us/politics/michael-flynn-guilty-russia-investigation.html
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Michael Flynn Pleads Guilty to Lying to the F.B.I.
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Most of our lives are about proving something, either to ourselves or to
someone else.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Spamalope on Saturday December 02 2017, @02:22PM (26 children)
Was Flynn obligated to answer FBI questions as a condition of his employment? Because otherwise he shouldn't have answered except in writing and through an attorney. The interview process is dangerous for a careful, honest person. It's massively more dangerous for a salesman type who runs their mouth, whether they intend to mislead or not. I don't have a dog in this particular hunt, but am upset about the apparent double standards - corruption on that scale destroys faith in gov't - which destabilizes things.
But really though, what's talking when they're looking for a way to 'turn' someone look like?
Your interview is anywhere from a few hours to multiple days. Possibly extended until the desired result is achieved.
You get a single detail wrong from any question: Jail
You have mental superpowers and are able to answer perfectly even when the interviewers are trying to trip you up. (no actual person can do this) They have another person on record who gives details that differ from yours - even if you're right: Jail (they can presume the other person is right - their discretion)
You answer correctly. The interviewer notes your answer incorrectly.: Jail (their record is the only one that matters)
Thus lawyers having sudden memory loss when cornered - 'I don't recall' and such.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday December 02 2017, @02:45PM (25 children)
sigh.
guys, can't you understand? this is not about flynn. its about the upper mgmt! they are simply walking up the chain of command and will get the real bad guys (donny two-scoops, hopefully) in due time. this is what many people are expecting and its why last nite was such a great night for so many of us.
we hate seeing our country stolen by the likes of the orange one and his gang. the sooner we can remove him and his corrupticians, the better. this country needs to return to something close to normal before its truly too late.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 02 2017, @02:52PM (17 children)
Be careful what you wish for. Is it better to have the buffoon in charge, or to allow his handlers to just take over? You do realize that Trump won't be replaced by anyone you like.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday December 02 2017, @03:01PM (16 children)
its time to TRULY drain the swamp.
many believe that trump AND pence will both roll.
this will cause many R's to switch sides and could change the landscape of things for the next election cycle.
we're all hoping this can cause some return to normality. with ajit the idiot burning down the internet so the rich media and isp co's and divide it all up; and with the house trying to ram down the 'tax the poor even more' bill, we really need this whole exec team to be removed, as soon as possible.
once one or two top guys are removed, it will have a healing effect and may even cause the R's to do some soul searching about what they really want to be seen as. right now, what they're seen as - is a word I should not use in polite company.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday December 02 2017, @03:55PM (1 child)
Hillary's stealing the nomination is what took the party down and they haven't learned a goddamn thing from it, still neglecting the White Americans in favor of minority welfare votes.
There is still more trouble for the Democrats a-brewin -- Debbie and the Awan brothers, Obama's use of the deep state, the extent of Hillary's foreign gun-running and secret-selling, and illegals committing voter-fraud in favor of Clinton.
And it's really a goddamn shame that there were no viable third-party candidates. Gary Johnson, for whom I had previously voted, went full-retard on the dude-weed and can barely hold a conversation without giggling every 5 seconds. Jill Stein is a hoary open-borders Jew who wanted to push our standard living to that of the third-world.
Of course Bernie was typically Democratic and big on Socialism, which is a dog-whistle for welfare state with low standards of living, but at least he was also populist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 02 2017, @06:25PM
They didn't learn from Humprey and McCarthy; why would they learn this time?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Saturday December 02 2017, @05:07PM (2 children)
"could change the landscape of things for the next election cycle."
From one toilet into another?
Status quo, same old same old?
You need REAL change, not Obama/Clinton change.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 02 2017, @07:02PM (1 child)
> You need REAL change, not Obama/Clinton/Trump change.
FTFY.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday December 03 2017, @03:13AM
Sorry... thought that was a given :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday December 02 2017, @07:32PM (7 children)
You can believe what you want about Pence "rolling" with him, but it's unlikely. If Trump goes down, we're going to be stuck with Pence, which is 100 times worse. Trump is a loud buffoon, but really we're better off with him than with Pence.
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday December 02 2017, @08:37PM (6 children)
pence will try his religious shit and some will stick, perhaps; but once he's out and a new admin is in, it very likely will all be undone.
the orange one, otoh, is burning the place to the ground. some things are harder to undo than others.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 02 2017, @10:08PM (1 child)
Pence will have 0 popular support. Trump has his 35% loons. Once he's done, I don't see them rallying to the cause of religious piety and (more) tax cuts.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday December 02 2017, @11:21PM
Popular support isn't that important; support of Congress is. Trump doesn't have it, so he's not getting much done that can't be done with just executive orders. Pence is actually competent and has support from the GOP, and would get a lot of nasty stuff passed.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday December 02 2017, @11:06PM (3 children)
Pence will have plenty of support from the Republicans in Congress, and he'll get a bunch of stuff passed. A new administration won't be able to get it easily undone because laws are hard to change once passed (look at Obamacare), and Democrats aren't going to sweep Congress despite the delusions of some Dem voters: GOP voters are just a lot better at getting out to vote unfortunately, especially in mid-term elections. The best Dems can hope for is a small majority in Congress, but that's about it and that's really unrealistic at this point; the DNC still hasn't recovered from last year and still has huge internal divisions.
The orange one isn't getting along well with Republicans in Congress and isn't getting anything passed. So far, what significant new laws has he signed?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @01:25AM
> GOP voters are just a lot better at getting out to vote
GOP operatives are just a lot better at gerrymandering the voting districts
FTFY
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @05:22AM (1 child)
In general, yeas, but that's a bad example. If Rs spent an afternoon and crafted a repeal that wasn't outright Machiavellian, it would pass in a heartbeat... especially since they still own both houses of Congress.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @07:38AM
Most of the republicans are RINOs (Republican In Name Only) that have been paid well by the companies making money off of Obamacare.
The RINOs actually like having a democrat in the whitehouse. This lets them vote for things their donors hate, knowing that a presidential veto makes the gesture meaningless. The repeal they claimed to desire was just a way to win votes.
Now that they know Trump might actually sign a repeal, they have to find a different way to make it fail. The donors would be pissed if the repeal passed.
So the strategy is to fall one vote short. The RINO voting with the democrats is serving a master other than the voters. Who should that RINO be? Well, some choices...
It can be a person who will not run for reelection. McCain was this from the start, being really old. Now he's even dying of brain cancer.
It can be a person who gets blackmailed. The main currency traded in DC is not dollars or votes but dirt. Powerful people have dirt on everybody. With that, you can demand that somebody vote as you like. If a supposed republican votes against the repeal and isn't obviously not running for reelection, you can be sure there is a huge scandal. For example, maybe he's raping little boys and the senate majority leader reminds him of it before asking for a vote against repeal.
So that's all it is. They want the repeal to fail, due to money, and they find a way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 02 2017, @09:47PM
Of course. The Republicans should want to be seen as Democrats in better-fitting suits, right?
Hence the pervasive disgust with BOTH sides of the Demoplican Uniparty.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 03 2017, @12:44AM
I'll bet none believe that they can be charged with insurrection. The talk I've heard over the past thirteen or fourteen months does lead to insurrection, or rebellion, mutiny and sedition charges. There has been a hell of a lot of ugly talk, which could lead to open civil war.
You're being played for fools. Useful fools, to someone, but fools all the same.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @02:55AM
All you had to do was offer a patriotic American.
You don't seem to have any, but supposing you did, the election was yours to win. They all are in fact. The trouble I believe is funding. We saw in 2016 that it takes $600 million to win or $1300 million to lose. Patriotic Americans don't get support from globalist corporations and they certainly don't get $200 million from dealing uranium. How is a patriotic American supposed to fund a campaign? He'd need fuck-you money like Perot, Trump or Notch.
Other than the funding issue, it's damn easy: Support our rights, including gun rights. Stop immigration entirely, unless you can perfectly restrict it to small numbers of high-skilled non-Muslims. Build the wall. Deport millions of people who are depressing wages and stealing identity. Toss out the regulations that keep American factories from being competitive. Take action to eliminate the non-English areas that are forming in our country. Put us first in international negotiations; the Paris accords for example were unacceptable. Don't discriminate against Asians and whites, as democrats often do, or obviously against anybody else.
If you take offense against being pro-American however, you deserve to lose.
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Saturday December 02 2017, @03:02PM
Breaking the law is just fine as long as my team is the only one doing it!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 02 2017, @06:36PM (5 children)
Because that is what you get.
No, impeaching Donald Trump does not get you Hillary Clinton. No, it doesn't mean Bernie Sanders still has a chance; that was stolen a year and a half ago.
You get Pence.
Not that you can impeach him (determined by the House) or convict him (determined by the Senate) of course. Mueller can't do either. All he can do is bitch. Check the constitution; he has no power. The people with power are not going to impeach...
...but even if they did, you get Pence. Pence, Pence, Pence, glorious Pence! Wonderful Pence!
We impeached Bill Clinton. Ever wonder why the Senate didn't convict him? Gore was your Pence.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday December 02 2017, @07:15PM (4 children)
I'm hoping that the investigation is going to lead to the entire results of the election being called into question and it being invalidated. There might not be precedent for it but that doesn't mean we aren't ripe for a nice constitutional crisis. I agree removing Trump and getting Pence is bad and it would take a while of following the line of succession before I'd like the replacement.
I've been told this is essentially calling for a coup but my argument is that if the election was influenced by external actors and illegally so with the knowledge, consent, and possibly even direction of the campaign that won we have found the true coup.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 02 2017, @10:37PM
GUYS, BERNIE CAN STILL WIN!!!
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday December 02 2017, @11:25PM
Is there actually any law that can be used to call into question the election if it was "influenced" by external actors?
After all, what do you consider campaign advertisements to be? They're attempting to influence voters, and they frequently use lies and half-truths. Are they somehow OK just because they're paid for by politicians (or these days, their PACs), and somehow Russian propaganda is "bad" because it's not American-made? That seems pretty ridiculous to me.
The voters were exposed to lots of information, some true, some not so much, just like they have been in EVERY election. All political advertising is propaganda after all, plus we have freedom of speech here. The voters made their decision and cast their votes, and there's no evidence I've heard of that the actual voting results were tampered with.
I'm sorry, I don't see how Russia being involved would change anything at all. Direct collusion between politicians and Russia would definitely look bad, and may even be illegal somehow, but I don't see how this can invalidate the election.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @03:24AM (1 child)
The senate election in New Hampshire was influenced by external actors (Massachusetts residents) and illegally so with the knowledge, consent, and possibly even direction of the campaign that won.
You have a stolen senate seat.
There are also external actors illegally in California, giving an extra 10 electoral votes to that state. To use your favored wording, this disenfranchises people elsewhere. Other states have the problem too, generally blue states. Based on this alone, the 2012 election was likely won via the presence external actors illegally here with the knowledge, consent, and possibly even direction of the campaign that won.
Using a low estimate, 800,000 of those illegal aliens voted. That is enough to throw many states, obviously including Florida in 2012.
You stole a presidential term.
So, um, what do you propose to do about those?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @05:26AM
> Using a low estimate, 800,000 of those illegal aliens voted. That is enough to throw many states, obviously including Florida in 2012.
Oh for the love of... Do you have any facts, any facts at all, to support this idiotic allegation? If there were any, Republicans, who currently have an iron grip on the entire federal government and have been screaming "voter fraud" for decades, would've been all over that.