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
(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.