Flynnghazi: Justice Dept. warned WH that advisor vunlnerable to blackmail.

[Skroe]

Why do so many of them have ties with Russia?

In a round about way, "It's Bush's fault". I'm only being somewhat flippant.

Basically the Bush Administration, rather than being a career builder, ended up being a career ender for a lot of very talented "establishment" republican types, who left public service when, had the Bush Administration had gone better, would have been the next generation of leading Republicans. This opened the way for the Tea Party, the Fringe, the Ted Cruz types, starting in 2010.

Since around that time there was a sympathetic thread in the far right that saw Obama's liberalism in an extremely exaggerated sense, and saw in Putin and Russia, a "traditional values" counterweight to Obama. This, of course, speaks mostly to those individuals lack of education on Putin, on Russia and how international liberalism differs from domestic liberal politics. Putin's conservatism is not American conservatism, and is no ally of it.

Nevertheless, the Kremlin, always looking for useful idiots, has made overtures to that far right for years. I am of the right, and I've seen isolated fawning of Russia going back to 2011. Pre-Trump, the lunatic fringe only did it. It gradually became more mainstream.

Frankly, I think a lot on the right are desperate. They didn't know how to beat Obama. They don't know how to popularize themselves amidst declining demographics while simultaneously holding on to the aging voter blocs they dominate. They're trying to do anything except split the right, which frankly needs to happen.

There is a direct line, as I see it, between Republican's going from saying "we need to invite latinos in our party... they're religious and family values have a lot of overlap with us", to vilifying Mexican immigration, and trying to make nice with Russia. It's doing the easy thing - a further retreat from difficult choices - rather than doing the necessary thing, which is casting out some people who really need to be.

[Breccia]

No way? Surely he can't be under serious consideration.

We'll find out together.

Why, yes, I am already writing the Four Weeks In discussion. Boy do I have a headline. And it's only Monday!

[Skroe]

No no no no no.

Die hard REPUBLICANS don't like Russia at all.

Trump's breed is different. Never forget that.

The best part is, Russia knows this and their terrified. If Trump were to fall, they know Democrats (who will never forget 2016) and Establishment Republicans (who are always anti-Russia) will come after them with a fury the likes of which they've never seen.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/13/...y-about-trump/

What the Kremlin fears most today is that Trump may be ousted or even killed. His ouster, Kremlin insiders argue, is bound to unleash a virulent and bipartisan anti-Russian campaign in Washington. Oddly, therefore, Putin has become a hostage to Trump’s survival and success. This has seriously restricted Russia’s geopolitical options. The Kremlin is perfectly aware that Democrats want to use Russia to discredit and possibly impeach Trump while Republican elites want to use Russia to deflate and discipline Trump. The Russian government fears not only Trump’s downfall, of course, but also the possibility that he could opportunistically switch to a tough anti-Moscow line in order to make peace with hawkish Republican leaders in Congress.

[Paranoid Android]

I'm surprised it took this long for a majority scandal to happen in Trump's administration

[Breccia]

The best part is, Russia knows this and their terrified.

Terrified? Surely they're smart enough to predict this a move or two ahead. Putin's a lot of things, but not an idiot.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm surprised it took this long for a majority scandal to happen in Trump's administration

I'd still call "firing Yates for not defending what turned out to be an unConstitutional EO" a scandal. Just one the GOP is likely to accept.

This...well, they'll find a way to gloss this over until the tax break is signed.

[NYC17]

We'll find out together.

Why, yes, I am already writing the Four Weeks In discussion. Boy do I have a headline. And it's only Monday!

I mean, the idea of replacing someone who lied about discussing things with Russia, with someone who shared classified information with a woman he was banging, and it be seen as a good thing, could only happen in a Trump administration.

[Piglord]

Apparently breaking news was a couple hours ago,missed the other person's link.

[Elegiac]

Terrified? Surely they're smart enough to predict this a move or two ahead. Putin's a lot of things, but not an idiot.

You assume that Putin chose to wade into this quagmire entirely of his own volition.

Part of the reason why he supported Trump was, by all accounts, because of who was running against him. Putting political capital behind someone who was likely to backfire was deemed the palatable alternative to Hillary Clinton taking the Presidency.

When you hear a lot of this 'Hillary's a warmonger' crap, that's partly reflective of Russian fears. She was in favor of a much harder line against Russia than Obama was - she wouldn't have blinked in the game of chicken that Syria represented.

[Breccia]

I mean, the idea of replacing someone who lied about discussing things with Russia, with someone who shared classified information with a woman he was banging, and it be seen as a good thing, could only happen in a Trump administration.

Trump has shown nothing but the height of hypocrisy for the entire campaign, and arguably his entire adult life. Remember he got elected to help the little guy. Trump, the person who has been sued, and has lost, dozens of times by people he was contractually obligated to pay, but didn't.

There was another judgement just last week!

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You assume that Putin chose to wade into this quagmire entirely of his own volition.

Well yeah...he's a dictator. People do not tell Putin what to do.

EDIT: Hmm, see what you mean but still respectfully disagree.

[Paranoid Android]

Flynnghazi? Did I miss the part where American diplomats and soldiers were left to die?

You never know what Flynn's leaks or info might cause in the future

[NYC17]

Trump has shown nothing but the height of hypocrisy for the entire campaign, and arguably his entire adult life. Remember he got elected to help the little guy. Trump, the person who has been sued, and has lost, dozens of times by people he was contractually obligated to pay, but didn't.

There was another judgement just last week!

- - - Updated - - -



Well yeah...he's a dictator. People do not tell Putin what to do.

EDIT: Hmm, see what you mean but still respectfully disagree.

Trust me, I'm well aware of what Trump is and is not. I've said before, having grown up in the tri-state area in the 80's and 90's, you were exposed to him far more, and far earlier than the rest of the country.

[Elegiac]

Well yeah...he's a dictator. People do not tell Putin what to do.

EDIT: Hmm, see what you mean but still respectfully disagree.

Putin is not as much of a mastermind as you give him credit for. In fact, in terms of his autocratic style he's fairly...well, generic. The same tactics we've seen before used in the USSR, China, or North Korea, the same controls over media, vilification of intellectuals, the same erosion at the political foundations of opposition.

His motives in terms of foreign policy stem from known factors regarding Russia's increasing economic disability as well as the fact its political integrity is held together by Soviet era duct tape. In this case, it was because Russia needs breathing room in Syria and the Ukraine where it can prove to its masses how mighty and awesome Mother Russia is so they don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain - something Clinton would not have all granted of her own power.

[Breccia]

By the way, for added irony:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...ted-leaks.html

Top House Republican wants FBI 'assessment' on Trump-related leaks

The Republican leadership of the House Intelligence Committee wants the FBI to do an assessment of recent media leaks that have revealed details of sensitive discussions involving key Trump administration officials.

"We are going to be outlining all of our concerns over the last 60 days that appear to all be related, maybe even coordinated in some ways," committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox News. "I am going to be asking the FBI to do an assessment of this to tell us what's going on here because we cannot continue to have these leaks as a government."

The leaks include reported details from phone calls between President Donald Trump and the leaders of Australia and Mexico; from the intelligence community investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. presidential campaign; and most recently from conversations between National Security Adviser Mike Flynn and the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

The latter leak has created new pressures for the Trump White House, even raising questions about Flynn's future with the administration.
-------------------------

Posted from FOX Freaking News.

[33kamous3]

As far as Putin goes, whatever makes US look bad is good for him, so it's kinda win/win, although I'm sure he'd prefer to have a White House full of sycophantic rats.

The real question, I think, is to what degree was Flynn acting alone. The official line of course is that he made an honest mistake. It's also very possible that he was in step with Trump and is now having to fall on his sword for the administration. Of course those aren't the only possibilities.

[Breccia]

The real question, I think, is to what degree was Flynn acting alone.

It will be very hard to defend Flynn as working alone after Manafort, Page, and Tillerson. There might be more I'm forgetting, but honestly it's enough of a pattern to be very, very concerned.

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Oh fuck me, this gets better and better.

Russia Today tweets about Flynn ‘retirement’

[Skroe]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...saster/516285/

“This reminds me of the run-up to Iran- Contra.”

The person offering that gloomy observation was a veteran of many years in and around the US defense community. Unusually for a person with such a background, he had been a Trump supporter even during the Republican primaries. Now, though, he was worried. The new National Security Council leadership was taking form—and he feared he saw history repeating itself.

“The National Security Council,” he warned, “is not one executive body. It is a deliberative body.” But the new national security adviser, General Michael Flynn, obviously hungered to carry out policy, not merely preside over policy formation. That way lay the disaster that had befallen Reagan's national security advisers Bud Macfarlane and John Poindexter in the 1980s, who were convicted of lying to Congress about the administration selling arms to Iran to finance anti-communist militants in Nicaragua.

And there will be no escape for the President, this time.

[Edge-]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...saster/516285/



And there will be no escape for the President, this time.

Not going to lie, if Trump can manage to pull off an Iran-Contra style disaster this quickly, I'll be legitimately impressed.

Terrified beyond words, but still impressed.

[Milchshake]

The notion that the National Security Advisor would go from:

Flynn: a guy who was one of the primary "Lock Her Up" cheerleaders against Clinton for classified leaks TO
Petraeus: a guy who pled guilty to leaking classified info to his mistress

is almost too delicious to contemplate.

I think Putin would vote for Pretraeus. The KGB/FSB still loves to put out a good ole Honeypot.
Anna Chapman is looking for work...

According to her instagram and interview by Julian Assange on RT, she's a huge Trump fan.

[ringpriest]

Terrified? Surely they're smart enough to predict this a move or two ahead. Putin's a lot of things, but not an idiot.

Perhaps terrified is the wrong word, but by backing Trump as overtly as he has, Putin's government is now in a "tiger by the tail" situation - as Skroe points out, if/when Trump goes, everyone in the US establishment will have it out for Russia in general, and his government in particular. That doesn't make what he did necessarily stupid, but it was risky.

Putin was playing a Fabian strategy, and has been for years - a long waiting game, focused on "not losing" while nursing along Russia but unwilling to make/risk any big changes; but with the advent of Trump he had a shot at an actual win and took it: with Trump in the White House, the Russian hope is that either he will transform the US and its foreign policy in a direction more friendly to autocratic semi-functional plutocrat/kleptocrat regime's like Putin's or at least thoroughly re-orient America's foreign policy focus in a way that would be difficult to reverse (8 years of moderately successful Trump could accomplish this); and/or Trump will destroy the U.S. (or at least its geopolitical muscle), leaving it unable to challenge Russia's "neo-Great Power status".

The problem is that if Trump is ousted swiftly, he doesn't get any of the above scenarios - instead, everyone from the liberals (you attacked our freedom and made us lose!) to the neo-liberals and neo-cons (who already opposed Russia / Putin anyway), to the (sane faction) corporatist right, the military and intelligence communities, and more will all happily target Putin's Russian for their own reasons, with the kind of momentum that becomes difficult to turn aside (possibly even in the face of Armageddon). Putin will have traded in Russia's long-established, mostly-defensive position for an aggressive (if cheap in terms of the resources it took) gambit... and lost.

(What's sad about the whole thing is that if he'd been willing or able to risk real domestic change 15 years ago, once he'd gotten things stabilized, he'd have had a shot at going down in history as Putin the Great - but for whatever reason (I suspect reluctance to risk what he had, and pressure from a lot of factions - Putin may be Consul, or even Dictator, but he balances atop a pyramid of other forces) he's never gone more than half-way: stabilizing and patching, but never really reforming or transforming, Russia, it's people, or its capabilities.)

[belleflop]

I'd be interested to hear anyone argue that says Flynn acted on his own without direction from Trump. I mean this will all be figured out in due time. Just wondering if any supporters think this was all Flynn and no one else. Let me remind you that the collusion part of the dossier has been confirmed by the intelligence community.