Open Thread Dec. 1: Flynn Pleads Guilty, Cotton Unqualified
Well, now we know why Crazy Uncle Donald has been crazier than usual. Mike Flynn is pleading guilty today to a single count of lying to the FBI. Given how much else he could be charged with, this seems a pretty clear indication that he’s going to talk, if he hasn’t already.
The earthquake that hit just about 5 p.m. yesterday rattled the china — mine, anyway — was centered near Dover, but it’s close enough to Washington for wags all over the country to claim it was the Founding Fathers rolling over in their graves.
Maybe, if the Russia probe moves quickly enough, Trump will be too busy fighting for survival to go through with his plan to make Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton director of the CIA, a proposal that’s being blasted by intelligence professionals left, right and center. It’s not his neo-con hawkishness that appealed to Trump, it’s that he’s loyal on the Russian issue, having already claimed Russia had nothing to do with the elections.
Democrats who insist that our party is better than theirs will have to cope with the fact that Texas Republican Congressman Joe Barton is retiring in the wake of having his dick pic made public. By those Democrats’ logic, Republicans are now better than Democrats, which ought to show everyone how silly this exercise is morality peacocking really is.
Speaking of the Women’s Project, the Delaware State News did what the News Journal’s leadership apparently is too chickenshit to do — asked the state’s congressional delegation about the current moral panic in Washington. All three condemned it, of course — not exactly a bold stance — but one of the three has remarkably little to say. Guess which one.
I’ll be gone most of the day, so have at it and update whatever happens with Flynn.
Are any founding fathers buried in Washington?
I hate Joe “wind turbines cause global warming by interfering with the wind that cools the Earth” Barton…. but he was… ugh.. a victim of revenge porn, wasnt he?
He sent that… display to a consenting recipient who let it get into the public without his approval. He’s retiring out of embarrassment and shame…. not embarrassment and shame at something id LIKE him to feel it for, but he is not accused of anything.
that felt disgusting.
Hope they throw the book at Flynn, even if hes cooperating with the feds. He lied to FBI. and took huge money from Russia, Turkey and other foreign govts. Greedy and no good.
@Dan: Now you mention it, maybe they were going off the proximity to Philadelphia, where five signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried in the cemetery at Christ Church.
I could find no information that any founders were buried in Washington, which of course didn’t exist until 1791. Naturally, having been born at a time when all the states were separate colonies, most founders are buried in the states in which they lived.
“He’s resigning out of embarrassment and shame.”
As I said, if this is a morality contest, he’s the winner, even though he did nothing wrong (by today’s standards) in sending the picture to whomever received it.
Back in the day, “revenge porn” went by the name “blackmail,” as the target was usually asked for money in return for not making the photos public, and it’s one of the reasons you don’t want politicians doing this stuff. The Russians call it “kompromat,” and use it to control people. We’ll be learning more about that in the coming months.
@chris: If you throw the book at a cooperating witness, you’ll never have another cooperating witness.
Lock him up, lock him up lol. Love Karma!
Chants of “Lock her up!”
‘Ol MIke Flynn, what goes around comes around!!
“Given how much else he could be charged with, this seems a pretty clear indication that he’s going to talk, if he hasn’t already.”
Maybe. I don’t know. I just don’t have the stomach for this type of soothsaying necromancy anymore. I know the courts still operate by some internal logic and constancy, but Trump’s madman strategy is a literal wildcard.
ABC is reporting that Flynn is “prepared to testify… against President Trump, against members of the Trump family and others in the White House.”
Further… Brian Ross of ABC Flynn promised “full cooperation” and is prepared to testify that as a candidate Donald Trump “directed him to make contact with the Russians.”
http://www.abcn.ws/2AhU3Iq
As someone who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for many, I can confidently attest to the fact that we (Bay Area denizens) would barely noticed a 4.1. No more than a heavy semi passing by. Or maybe a freight train.
I didn’t feel this one either (I was in town Lewes at the time). On the Mercalli scale, this probably was a II (weak, hardly felt).
I was in the 1989 Loma Prieta No Cal. Earthquake. It was had a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a Mercalli intensity of IX (violent) (X -extreme is the highest intensity).
At least it was a non-partisan event, although points could be given for turning it into a partisan event.
@Dave: The rumble at my house was similar to what I feel when the Air National Guard helicopters pass by. That’s what I assumed it was until a couple of hours later when someone told me it was the earthquake.
I hope the 3 Musketeers over at BD are taking time to enjoy this.
@Ben: Mike Flynn hasn’t been accused of sexually harassing anyone, so how bad could he be?
If I were Flynn, I’d dang sure watch out where I was walking, who was behind me with an umbrella, and never drink tea again.
The Bulgarian umbrella!
@alby, haha, truth. it is QUITE the display over there today.
and yes, people in Flynn’s position seem to have REALLY bad luck with stairs and food and what not. 24 “accident” watch is a must.
@Alby Yes! “helicopters” are an apt description. Actually better than a semi.
Democrats finally have a Republican in Congress they can point to beyond Roy Moore and Donald Trump as a sexual harasser: Texas sad-sack Blake Farenthold, who has been called out before for his treatment of women. This is sadly predictable, because until he was elected Farenthold couldn’t get close enough to any women to know how to act around them. Just one look at him in duck pajamas and you understand.
On the other hand … well, maybe that’s the wrong term, since no touching was involved, just the kind of dumb sexual comments that normal men learn not to make in mixed company before they reach graduation age.
omg that picture… the cringe on her face.
@ben: There are millions of guys — literally millions — who are just as physically unattractive as he is, but they never get that close to a woman who looks like her unless they pay folding money. Most also have the sense not to wear duck pajamas.
That a yob like Blake F. would react like a yob given proximity to attractive women is the exact opposite of surprising.