Based on Flynn’s clear fear for his son and self I would say they have a whole lot on him but he was able to secure a really sweet deal because he’s prepared to flip on someone above him. If he didn’t have juice on a bigger fish they would’ve fried him.
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I can’t untill Trump is
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Amplifying on this: Mueller and team would not have charged Flynn with a relatively minor charge except in exchange for information that will lead to an indictment of someone higher up the food chain. The only people higher up than Flynn are Trump and Pence. (Although looks like Kushner and maybe others are going to go down, too.)
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So, I was feeling cautiously hopeful that maybe we’re getting a little closer to impeachment. Maybe.
But then I recall Trump’s penchant for diversionary tactics.
The whole world (from us Canucks to the Ruskies) is already freaking out about the latest missile test by North Korea. And now we hear that Tillerson (who was arguing for a diplomatic approach to North Korea) is about to be chucked out and replaced by an even more hawkish Pompeo.
I reflect on these things and I start feeling very scared.
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If you want to know why he’s singing so loud and clear, you just have to read the plea deal info released today. Several times, between the election and the inauguration, Flynn engaged directly with the Russian ambassador and contradicted foreign policy statements being made at the time by President Obama. That kind of interference by a President-Elect is flatly forbidden, and Flynn’s already testified that he was directly ordered to do that by Trump.
That’s what he’s pleading to today, but even deeper than that is Flynn’s own exposure to the Turkish gov’t. They were offering to pay him $15mil in exchange for, among other things, straight-up kidnapping a cleric living in America that the Turkish President didn’t like & delivering him to Turkey. That’s not money being offered to the US gov’t, or a gov’t agency; that was money being solicited by Flynn himself as a private citizen. As someone who knew he’d be able to have that done in the coming months from his position in Trump’s administration.
That’s not exactly treason, but it comes remarkably close to falling under espionage. And that shit gets you life in prison without parole. And as Flynn’s chief of staff and partner-in-crime, his son was exposed to that charge as well.
That kind of reality check will get even a hard-core crook like Flynn singing PDQ…
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I hear, from people smarter than myself, that the plea deal is of a kind they only offer when you give up somebody bigger than yourself.
How many people in Washington are bigger than the National Security Advisor? About… two?
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Exactly. The issue is that Flynn has confessed to a minor offence, and got a really minor punishment, compared to what he could have been charged with and could have been punished with.
Now, investigators and prosecutors don’t do giveaways. Which means he made a deal for a light sentence.
Which means he had dirt enough to make a deal with, enough to help an investigation get somewhere, on someone the FBI wanted to prosecute more than they want Flynn. Which has to mean someone higher ranking.
There aren’t many bigger fish around than Flynn.
Two names on that very short list are… rather glaringly obvious.
And that’s why it’s a big deal. The fact that the sentence is so small is what makes it huge.
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Now if we could convince them to actually do it (fly to Guyana and drink. . .) it would make this a much better world.
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I don’t know if you are correct or not. Some things encourage me: The recent elections in Virginia and New Jersey, etc., and the fact that Trumpers are dying off more quickly because they are older.
Oh, and the possibility of thousands of Puerto Ricans moving to Florida. And the Supreme Court case against gerrymandering.
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My day is brighter now. 
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Best Friday Happy Hr since last Nov.
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I’m confused: Are we talking about collusion (pre-election coordination with the Russians for the purposes of influencing the election) or improper discussions with the Russians (post-election, pre-inauguration foreign policy discussions)?
I get that they’re both shitty things with potentially serious consequences for Trump. But is the latest news only about the latter, and not the former?
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This is your periodic reminder that:
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A President can not be indicted while in office.
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Trump holds the pardon power.
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The GOP Congress will not impeach Trump while he is supported by the majority of the GOP base.
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Even if Trump were to be impeached/indicted, he would not go quietly, and almost all of the cops are Trumpists.
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Fascists are counting the votes.
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Trump is not the problem; fascism is the problem. Replacing Trump with a more competent Republican makes the situation worse, not better.
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Fox News was prepared! While the other networks were all talking about Flynn, they spent the morning clutching their pearls over the Loretta Lynch/Bill Clinton tarmac meeting.
It’s almost as bad as when O.J. insisted he was going to find the real killer!
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I believe you meant to say he “folded faster than Superman on laundry day”
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Then let the next election be a referendum on impeachment.
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You mean before the election results?
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To quibble a quibble, Trump only holds pardon power over federal crimes. Common musings have it that Mueller is savvy enough to have made contingencies in the case of a Trump pardon of the federal charges. [Source: IDK, probably boingboing]
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I refer to my point #5.
YMMV, but I believe that the corruption of the US electoral system is already a lost cause. It was only nominally democratic pre-Trump; it’s beyond rescue now.
There is a solution, but it’s in the streets.
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Yeah, I’m aware. That might enable blue states to try to hit some of the underlings, although I would not expect red states to cooperate with extradition proceedings.
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