Here’s hoping that Flynn testifies against others to avoid jail time:
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn likely broke the law by failing to disclose foreign income he earned from Russia and Turkey, the heads of the House Oversight Committee said Tuesday.
Trump’s greatest accomplishment in his first 100 days has been getting Bloomberg View and The Intercept to carry his water on the Russia investigation. The latest developments should prompt a flurry of anti-deep state articles from Glenn Greenwald and Eli Lake.
Thoroughly Pizzled
The Deep State got to you too, Doug!
Doug!
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
Guess I’m a typical Obot hypocrite
Roger Moore
I don’t know about Bloomberg View, but I’m going to credit The Intercept’s position to Putin rather than trump.
germy
“Lock her up!”
wait… what?
Hunter Gathers
Not much of an accomplishment. Greenwald will always be pissed off at the fact that we haven’t named him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or Emperor.
germy
Ian G.
@Hunter Gathers:
I don’t give Greenwald clicks, so I’m curious to know how Chechnya’s planned genocide against gays is the Democrats’ fault.
randy khan
@germy:
Ah, Jason, still doing the job you were hired to do, even though you’ve given notice.
Betty Cracker
We will never get to the bottom of this Trump-Putin business nor prevent Russia’s next attack on our democratic processes until we have a special counselor leading an independent investigation.
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
I think a House committee headed by Democrats could probably manage it. One more reason we need to push hard to take the House back in 2018.
cintibud
Putin can’t fail
oldster
The fact that Chaffetz–a thoroughly bought-and-sold Republican hack–is taking this public stance on his way out the door, tells us a lot about why he is leaving.
He’s moral vicious, but he’s not totally stupid: Chaffetz can see that the cover-up is starting to unravel, and he does not want to increase his complicity in it. He does not want to get ChrisChristied by Trump, holding the bag for Trump’s extensive wrong-doings, digging himself deeper month by month as Trump’s inner circle are indicted.
So Chaffetz is taking time off to spend with his family. And to keep his hands (relatively) clean. He sees what’s coming.
I just called the DC office of Tom Reed (NY-23) to ask why he is not out in front of this like Chaffetz is. Why is Tom Reed still covering up for Trump? Why is he not pressuring the White House to comply with document requests? Why is he not speaking out publicly?
Please call your reps (esp. Republicans) to tell them to put pressure on the White House. They have a choice: break with Trump, or go down with Trump. Help the investigation, or be complicit in the cover-up. We need to make that choice painfully clear to every member of Congress.
cmorenc
Good luck persuading AG Jeff Sessions to even seriously consider prosecuting Michael Flynn. Won’t happen if Trump’s inner circle has reason to suspect Flynn might turn and reveal seriously incriminating information against them – but Flynn wouldn’t do that anyway unless he’s first been given immunity by the Justice Department. Don’t expect Sessions and the DOJ to be in any hurry to risk completing the necessary legal circuit for this to possibly happen.
Doug!
@cintibud:
Ha!
SatanicPanic
@Betty Cracker: I hope Democrats learned their lesson from 2006 and don’t start running on “impeachment is off the table”. I will lose my mind if that happens.
JPL
@oldster: I’ll have to wait until after the June 20th election, and then I’ll call
Rep. Ossoff.
JMG
@cmorenc: When Congresspeople accuse someone of breaking the law, it’s hard for the DoJ to ignore the case altogether. Remember, Sessions lied under oath to the Senate himself. That’s a card Congress can play whenever it wishes.
hovercraft
@germy:
Funny how during the Obama administration and the fifty jillion Benghazi investigations, there was almost no concern about jurisdiction. Things that make you go hmm…..
cmorenc
@JMG:
Congresspeople can make such accusations from a position of relative safety, whereas Sessions cannot, without seriously risking bringing his patron (Trump) and himself down with it. Since when has shame or arguable legal duty stopped Sessions or Trump from doing (or not doing) anything?
hovercraft
@SatanicPanic:
I think that for most, Twitler and their behavior during the Obama years has been a wake up call. They keep making public pronouncements about wanting to work together, and being willing to compromise, but then when push comes o shove, they all shove. Gorsuck being the exception, but given it was going to happen anyways and the states those who voted yes come from, I’ll put that in a separate category.
It’s not just certain voters who are WOKE, it’s many of our congresscritters, and if we keep calling them, they’ll know to keep it up.
LAO
O/T: A “you’re crying, I’m not crying” moment. A beautiful eulogy delivered by the husband of the slain Parisian police officer.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Betty Cracker: “We will never get to the bottom of this Trump-Putin business nor prevent Russia’s next attack on our democratic processes until we
have a special counselor leading an independent investigation.waterboard Trump and all of his crooked minions.”Betty Cracker
@Roger Moore: I’m afraid we’ll lose the sense of urgency if we have to wait that long — and also have to endure another round of interference in our elections that may affect the outcome in 2018. It’s rarely noted in the media coverage of the hacking, but congressional races were affected too — in the House for sure and maybe the Senate.
Saw a poll somewhere today that upwards of 70% of Americans want an independent investigation. But we know how good the GOP is at ignoring enormous public support for good policy, so it’ll take more than that. I don’t know what the answer is except for continued loud public outcries, media coverage and drip-drip-drip revelations like this Flynn thing…and maybe Comey does a make-up call to salvage his shitty reputation.
Otherwise, I can see this getting swept under the rug, which would be incredibly outrageous and discouraging.
TenguPhule
@oldster:
Unless he plans on fleeing to Russia, he really doesn’t see what’s coming for him.
LAO
@cmorenc:
I agree wholeheartedly. I can not see the current incarnation of the DOJ — one that fails to recognize any ethical boundaries — prosecuting Flynn.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
Projection. The answer is always projection.
LAO
@Betty Cracker: It would, perhaps help, if the media felt a similar sense of outrage, rather than merely presuming this is a “both sides do it” political nothingburger.
Villago Delenda Est
I want this traitor motherfucker to get the full treatment
max
@SatanicPanic: I hope Democrats learned their lesson from 2006 and don’t start running on “impeachment is off the table”. I will lose my mind if that happens.
Getting impeachment off the table is perfectly sensible. Otherwise you have people running yelling ‘IMPEACH” all the time and your side winds up sounding like idiots from freeperland. (You will note that Obama was not impeached.) The other reason to blow off impeachment is because YOU WON’T SUCCEED. No sitting President has ever been impeached successfully, because a President can always finds a 1/3rd of the Senate to vote for him.
If Congress investigates Trump and finds out (or rather exposes) that he has truly gone all out and committed a panopoly of high crimes and misdemeanors it will become utterly obvious that he needs to be removed, and then the House will basically spontaneously impeach him.
max
[‘First the exposure, THEN the calls for impeachment, not the other way around.’]
Brachiator
Oh, dear. What a dilemma for the Republicans. They hitched their future to Trump. In return, he has backed them into a corner. They must obstruct justice and protect Flynn. And Trump.
Maybe a smoking gun with bullets in the chamber will force the GOP’s hand. Otherwise, it might take a turnover in 2018 to get this mess fixed.
SatanicPanic
@hovercraft: Yeah, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I’m making my calls, and it feels good. Kamala Harris’ office is really positive towards people calling.
GregB
I assume that the there is enough smoke that the Trump cabal are formulating a plan to cut him off from responsibility by throwing all of the little people under the bus.
No one could have known Trump’s entire team was comprised of Russian moles.
Villago Delenda Est
@SatanicPanic: Impeachment (of Donald, Dense, AND ZEGS and Yertle and Gorsuck) should not only be on the table, it should BE the table.
The Moar You Know
NOBODY is willing to give Flynn immunity. He’s been shopping it hard. No takers. I think they’ve got enough evidence on him, and I think that Nazi motherfucker is going to go to jail.
rikyrah
@oldster:
BRAVO
Spanky
Hey Donnie! Still thinking about provoking a foreign power that has cyber capability? (Including NK) ….
There’s more.
SatanicPanic
@max: They don’t have to run on “we’ll impeach” but suggesting they wouldn’t was dumb. Running on “we’ll investigate” is what they should do. If anyone asks if they’d impeach say “let’s learn the facts first.” We don’t need a conviction, impeachment alone would be damaging to his ego and would prevent any Democrats who might be inclined to work with him from doing so.
germy
@Brachiator:
I saw a Tom Toles comic a few days ago. Drumpf and McTurtle backed into a corner. Drumpf holding the paintbrush and paint can. McTurtle tells him “don’t worry, I’ve painted myself into this corner lots of times. Just save enough paint for the ‘Blame Democrats’ sign.”
George Spiggott
Oh, Doug…
… how’d you get a rude and a reckless?
Don’t you be so crude and a feckless
You been drinking brew for breakfast
Putie can’t fail
piratedan
anyone else feeling the All The President’s Men parallels like the Sloan testimony scene… I would have named Haldeman, but nobody asked me about Haldeman….
We would have had Flynn tell tales and name names, but no one invited him to testify…
The Moar You Know
@Spanky: I do IT security and have been screaming about the possibility of exactly this for years. Nobody takes it seriously. It will require it to actually happen before anyone does.
dogwood
@max:
Organizing and working to expose wrongdoing requires effort and and commitment. Yelling IMPEACH, is easy and accomplishes nothing. People who aren’t all that engaged pay little attention to the screaming. It’s politics as theater which, unfortunately, is enough for too many on both sides of the aisle.
rikyrah
Trump’s Delusions
by Nancy LeTourneau
April 25, 2017 11:58 AM
As I alluded to yesterday, Donald Trump’s interview with the Associated Press was deeply disturbing. It is tempting to throw up your hands and simply say, “the man is unhinged.” But if you have any interest in the particular way he is unhinged, this interview provided multiple examples of how he is delusional.
For example, he actually bragged about the “great chemistry” he has with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, when we all witnessed the exact opposite with our own eyes during their recent meeting. He went on to suggest that one of his great achievements will be the relationships he has established with foreign leaders.
………………………..
For a reality check, China has been propping up the yuan for the last couple of years — long before Trump even announced that he was going to run for president.
On the topic of his address to a joint session of Congress, Trump actually said, “A lot of the people have said that, some people said it was the single best speech ever made in that chamber.”
The list could go on as there were several other examples. But perhaps you get the point. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen these kinds of delusions from Trump. They started the first day he was in office with claims that his inaugural crowd was the biggest in history.
What we are witnessing is someone who needs to reshape reality to put himself in the center as “the greatest” of whatever standard is being measured. It is one thing for someone to brag constantly about their actual accomplishments. That can be annoying and selfish. But that isn’t what Trump does. He creates delusions to pretend he has accomplished great things. In that endeavor, he gets constant assists from right wing media – which creates a dangerous feedback loop.
CONGRATULATIONS!
No offers of immunity yet for Flynn. I find that strange.
I expect that either he is so guilty that offering immunity would look really bad, or that Trumpco still expects they can skate out of this.
Starfish
Was Flynn out of the military when he did all of this? Could he brought up in a military court for anything?
rikyrah
Trump brags about executive orders he used to condemn
04/25/17 12:53 PM—UPDATED 04/25/17 01:04 PM
By Steve Benen
Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Obama, asked a question of increasing relevance yesterday: “Remember when the GOP thought that signing executive orders during the week and playing golf on the weekend would cause the Republic to fall?”
Why, yes, I do remember that.
As Donald Trump’s 100th day as president quickly approaches, the White House has found itself with a difficult rhetorical pitch. On the one hand, Trump continues to say that the 100-day standard is “ridiculous” and unimportant, and the media’s preoccupation with the metric is a needless distraction. On the other hand, Trump and his team are desperate to tell everyone what an amazing 100-day stretch it’s been for the Republican administration. (The New York Times’ headline on this was perfect: “Trump Wants It Known: Grading 100 Days Is ‘Ridiculous’ (but His Were the Best”)
With this in mind, the Trump White House issued a press statement today insisting that this president “has accomplished more in his first 100 days than any other President since Franklin Roosevelt.” As proof, the White House’s press office noted, “President Trump will have signed 30 executive orders during his first 100 days” – the most seen from any chief executive since World War II.
Matt McIrvin
@max:
I’d argue Nixon’s impeachment process was a success. He conceded the game only because he knew checkmate was imminent. But Congress had a very different makeup in those days; it wouldn’t have happened today.
schrodingers_cat
@max: 3 is a poor sample size to base your statistics on.
StringOnAStick
I’m in a total panic. My husband has been showing slightly high WBC and lymphocytes for 3 years now, but it is now enough that they want him to see a hematologist. This is my super athletic, just did a hard 100 miles mountain bike ride over 4 days and beat us all, super healthy husband; how can this be? I can translate just enough medical information to make myself crazy by finding things like leukemia, lymphoma, etc, and his younger brother just died of a really odd lymphoma last fall. Please, let it be something else!
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
I’m not too worried about the lost sense of urgency. I’m pretty damn sure Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff aren’t going to forget about it between now an then, and they’ll be able to get the rest of the caucus on board when they point out the political benefits of a vigorous investigation. And I’m not worried about public urgency, either; people will pay attention when the details come out. Further interference is a bigger worry, but I’m not sure what we can do about that in any case.
dogwood
@Betty Cracker:
I think the sense of urgency is very real among those who follow this stuff closely. I know I am frustrated every day. But we have to remember that for the majority of voters who don’t follow political news obsessively, building a sense of urgency will take time. What has surprised me is the lack of focus on our side. When it comes to threats of repealing Obamacare, or decimating Planned Parenthood the call to contact congress critters is pretty universal on our side of cyber space. But urging mobilization with regard to the Russia stuff is pretty non-existent.
Villago Delenda Est
@Starfish: He’s a retired general officer. He can be recalled to active duty to face a court martial. He violated Army regulations concerning receiving money from foreign powers without prior approval by the Pentagon. He should be court martialed. He should be stripped of rank, pension, and VA benefits. This is before we even talk about how many years he’s going to be at the corrections side of Ft. Leavenworth.
LAO
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Not really. Whether or not criminal charges are brought, is under the purview of the Department of Justice. I do not believe that the Attorney General is all that interested in investigating a campaign — he himself was a member of. There is no true bi-partisan support for an independent investigation, until and unless Republicans back an investigation, there isn’t going to be one. It’s disgusting.
Jeffro
@germy:
Weren’t Flynn, Giuliani, and Christie the biggest “lock her up” chant-leaders at the convention?
Funny, that…
Starfish
@StringOnAStick: I hope the hematologists can unravel this mystery, and he does not have cancer.
Gretchen
@Starfish: I believe the rules apply to former military officers as well, so I think the military could do something.
Starfish
@dogwood: I felt like a lot of people at the Tax March had posters related to the Russia issues. It’s just hard to discuss the Russia issues when no one will investigate them. The Republicans pretend that the Russia issues are all jibberishy and make no sense, but the reason for that is no investigation has happened. I wish other governments instead of telling our government what happened would just start going straight to the press with what they have.
hovercraft
@Spanky:
You people keep forgetting that no has explained to our Toddler in Chief while he’s actually listening and using small enough words that all of this shit is very complicated, and that for every action there is a reaction. We may have the most advanced military, but we also have one of the most tech reliant and poorly protected open economy, and infrastructure, and… oh I’m sorry what? He fell asleep. Oh well.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: It’s always projection the same way that “warm water ports” is always the answer to the question “what motivates the Russians?” Well, that and buffer states.
Jeffro
@SatanicPanic:
Ay-effing-men to that. I have no doubt that the D base is going to get fired up as all hell to put a stop to this gang of thieves and win a majority so that we can impeach Trumpov. It’d be a truly blind and deaf D candidate who didn’t understand that.
schrodingers_cat
@StringOnAStick: Leukemia and Lymphoma are among the most treatable cancers, also elevated leukocytes does not necessarily mean cancer. I am keeping my paws crossed for you.
Villago Delenda Est
@Spanky: Fake news! Fake news!
Jeffro
@CONGRATULATIONS!: @LAO:
Flynn’s offer to testify in exchange for immunity tells me that the investigators already know everything that he was willing to tell. It may mean that there is more that he isn’t willing to tell, and they’re letting him think about that a while…
raven
@Villago Delenda Est: And they should break his sword and throw it out the gate!
hovercraft
@StringOnAStick:
I’m sorry you and your husband are confronted with these anomalies, hopefully the hematologist can figure it out quickly. Sending positive thoughts your way, I know it’s easy to say, but try not to panic until you have reason to. Best of luck.
TenguPhule
@Villago Delenda Est:
Treason and collaboration with the enemy are still punishable by death by firing squad in military justice, IIRC.
dogwood
@Jeffro:
So you really think there are enough Republican districts that will be energized by an IMPEACH platform to do the trick? Should that be Osseff’s battle cry next month?
Jeffro
@Jeffro: btw speaking of Christie, here’s a Profile in Courage if I ever saw one: the Outlaw Jersey Whale gives Trump’s first 100 days a solid “B”
Yes, that’s it: Trump has simply not been served well by the people around him, they haven’t been teeing the ball up well…
Anyway, hey Reince, I think somebody’s after your job, whadda you think? Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, either.
Jeffro
@dogwood: Hmmm…trying to see where I said they should run solely on an ‘impeachment platform’, or making it one’s “battle cry”…nope. They just need to not run away from the question.
hovercraft
@Jeffro:
Speaking as a resident of the Garden State, who gives a fuck what the asshole has to say about anything unless he’s announcing that he’s vacating Drumthwacket early, he can just shut the fuck up and let us all pretend he no longer has a job in this sate.
Yes I’m bitter.
germy
Just One More Canuck
@Mnemosyne: OT, but a video of Andrea Martin doing a rap (in her Edith Prickley character) written by Lin-Manuel Miranda just showed up in my FB page. Cant seem to link it, but if you’re on FB, like SCTV and you’ll find it
Matt McIrvin
@Starfish: My Ron Paulite friend-of-friend on Facebook jumps down the throat of anyone who hasn’t blocked him who mentions Trump and Russia with rants about “sucking the CIA’s dick”. I think he’s making the liberals afraid to mention it.
He’s one of these guys who claims to hate Trump but is obsessively anti-anti-Trump, in a manner that seems to revolve around a deathless loathing of Hillary Clinton and Obama. Also goes off on a hair trigger whenever anyone mentions racism.
Mnemosyne
@StringOnAStick:
Yikes! I hope it turns out to be nothing, and if it’s not nothing, that it’s treatable. I’m assuming his doctors have been keeping a sharp eye out since his brother died of an unusual cancer, so hopefully that monitoring will now pay off.
Kathleen
@StringOnAStick: Sending prayers to you and your family and hoping your anxiety is relieved quickly.
El Caganer
Doesn’t appear that everybody on Team Trump is enamored with the Russians. Of course, this could all be BS, too.
http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2017/04/25/us-cant-take-pressure-anymore-in-afghanistan/
Major Major Major Major
@StringOnAStick: Good vibes your way.
Chill, until you know more/anything. This reminds me, I’ve always wanted to start an advice column called Ask The Internet, where the answer to every health problem is cancer, every bug bite is bedbugs, your spouse is cheating on you, and you probably have Celiac.
rikyrah
BREAKING: Michael Flynn concealed Russia payments
Liberal Librarian
April 25, 2017
Well, the first shoe has dropped. Retired general Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s first National Security Advisor, took payments from Russia and concealed those payments on his security clearance forms, according to the House Oversight Committee.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
Very funny and very true.
Also, “I’m not a doctor, but…” and “I’ve Got a Remote Diagnosis For You.”
Elie
@Brachiator:
You may be right about having to wait until 2018 but I think that events — not just those related to the Russian connection — could destabilize the administration to a point where a whole bunch of stuff starts to unravel on its own. Its not, for example, evident that they can manage ANYTHING — from foreign policy to taxes to any aspect of governance. Their positions in many agencies remain unfilled and represent real vulnerability for them — and us.
We are used to administrations that could at least run much of the day to day and take care of the major government functions. This is not the case here. Afghanistan is getting fractious — Yemen is boiling — North Korea and a bunch of other. The Congress under the Republicans is completely dysfunctional: Aint Nothing Happening… they aren’t taking care of anything and seem to be looking at each other to figure out what they should be doing next. None of this is good of course and its a matter of time before something big happens.
In other words, don’t underestimate that other crises may exacerbate and unwind this Russian stuff. There are a lot of connections between how these people think and the reality that they have shown us some serious ability to fuck up the simplest things. They have Ivanka and Jared, for example, running around as the face of this administration and actually think this is flying — that they are in some sort of role play where the role play alone works to fix things… that Jared in a flak jacket in Iraq and Ivanka babbling platitudes about Daddy is actually the substance of governing. They are beyond lost and for that reason, unbelievably vulnerable…
Brachiator
@Elie:
You may be right, but I don’t see an unraveling leads to a removal of Trump. He is too useful to the Republicans. At the very least, should the GOP get its shit together, Trump is a dope who can sign passed legislation.
You note the positions that remain unfilled, but Trump can create a lot of mischief with the Justice Department alone.
But we will see.