The 2017 General Salma Hayek discussion thread...Part 3!!!

[BugI02]

Who knows?... what we do know, is that no one else got caught. Where does it say that the law only applies to the "average citizen?" Just because someone doesn't like a possible outcome doesn't mean that we can start making up to whom the law applies.

§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments.
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.

In United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp., 299 U.S. 304 (1936), Justice Sutherland, writing for the Court, observed,


"[T]he President alone has the power to speak or listen as a representative of the nation. He makes treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate; but he alone negotiates. Into the field of negotiation the Senate cannot intrude; and Congress itself is powerless to invade it. As Marshall said in his great argument of March 7, 1800, in the House of Representatives, 'The President is the sole organ of the nation in its external relations, and its sole representative with foreign nations.'

Do you require circles and arrows?

 

[Kutnupe14]

About violating the Logan act...

honestly the Logan act needs to be repealed.

No boat to get get out of alpo. Flynn was hated by Obama and was fired by him. Obama told trump to not hire Flynn again. Trump did and now obama's lap dog is going after Flynn. How independent of this counsel. Eye roll smiley.

Wait what??? Ok someone help me out with this logic. Obama hated Flynn, yet appointed him Director of the DIA. Obama loved Mueller, but Dubya appointed him. Obama then tricked Trump after the firing of Comey, and the inspiring Sessions to recuse himself, to convince the acting AG to appoint his lapdog Mueller to take over the investigation. Somehow, after Obama told Trump not to hire Flynn, Obama is at fault for Flynn and everyone else breaking the law.

Well, that's certainly a creative way to place blame on Obama. Well played Obama, well played.

 

[BugI02]

You're making it overcomplicated. Obama's shady use of FISA courts to spy on the Trump transition team ginned up the 'evidence' used to entrap Flynn in the hope of inflicting damage on Trump

Obama is the spider in the center of that web

 

[Alpo]

Flynn may or may not have violated a law.

What Flynn absolutely did was OPEN HIS MOUTH. And, allegedly, not tell the truth. He should do what everyone on this website has been told to do repeatedly. Shut the F up when questioned.

Flynn was under no compulsion to say anything. He was in Intelligence. He has lawyers. He has no reason to talk. If he had been given written interrogatories, he might have had a chance to think about what was said and not lied.

He violated his own basic rights and it is therefore difficult to find sympathy with him on this point.

However, the FBI might have been holding a lot more cards and let him off with a plea to lying. Who knows? Perhaps it will come out in future circumstances.

 

[Kutnupe14]

Flynn may or may not have violated a law.

What Flynn absolutely did was OPEN HIS MOUTH. And, allegedly, not tell the truth. He should do what everyone on this website has been told to do repeatedly. Shut the F up when questioned.

Flynn was under no compulsion to say anything. He was in Intelligence. He has lawyers. He has no reason to talk. If he had been given written interrogatories, he might have had a chance to think about what was said and not lied.

He violated his own basic rights and it is therefore difficult to find sympathy with him on this point.

However, the FBI might have been holding a lot more cards and let him off with a plea to lying. Who knows? Perhaps it will come out in future circumstances.

DING!
All roads lead to Russia, Russia, Russia. Several of our comrades in the Kreml.... I mean White House are sweating it out right now. Putin has shown himself to be the superior politician. He's made fools out of 3 administrations, getting better at it each time.

 

[Alpo]

DING!
Putin has shown himself to be the superior politician. He's made fools out of 3 administrations, getting better at it each time.

Yes, political intrigue and vodka. Two great Russian exports. Putin's downside: He's still stuck in Russia.

 

[Hop]

Wait... she tried out for a part in Total Recal?

 

[Phase2]

Followup on the Charlottesville conflict: A review of the govt. response was highly critical of how the police handled it. No big surprise. I am somewhat surprised at how little mention was made of the elected official's response.

Charlottesville protests: Police failed to maintain order, review finds

 

[jamil]

Followup on the Charlottesville conflict: A review of the govt. response was highly critical of how the police handled it. No big surprise. I am somewhat surprised at how little mention was made of the elected official's response.

Charlottesville protests: Police failed to maintain order, review finds

Yeah. Like ordering police to stand down. I watched hours of several different livestreams. The cops mostly stood around and watched the violence happen. Pretty much in every stream I watched. When I see people throwing rocks in a crowd and cops standing around watching, there’s no way they weren’t ordered to let all that happen.

 

[BugI02]

Flynn may or may not have violated a law.

What Flynn absolutely did was OPEN HIS MOUTH. And, allegedly, not tell the truth. He should do what everyone on this website has been told to do repeatedly. Shut the F up when questioned.

Flynn was under no compulsion to say anything. He was in Intelligence. He has lawyers. He has no reason to talk. If he had been given written interrogatories, he might have had a chance to think about what was said and not lied.

He violated his own basic rights and it is therefore difficult to find sympathy with him on this point.

However, the FBI might have been holding a lot more cards and let him off with a plea to lying. Who knows? Perhaps it will come out in future circumstances.

Since we apparently now allow baseless hypotheticals, may I proffer "Perhaps the FBI is pissing in the wind and knows it, leading Mueller to try to get something, anything to keep this dying controversy alive until the midterms" as equally (or perhaps more) plausible

 

[Alpo]

He lied under oath when he didn't have to. He lied to VP Pence.

Maybe he's just a liar. Or maybe there is fire underneath all that smoke.

It isn't "baseless".

 

[SheepDog4Life]

He lied under oath when he didn't have to. He lied to VP Pence.

Maybe he's just a liar. Or maybe there is fire underneath all that smoke.

It isn't "baseless".

It's interesting that the charging document does not quote what he said, the direct question asked of him, nor his response. It's a paraphrase. But the document, and previous reporting on this, strongly implies that the Russian Ambassador started to broach the subject of the Obama sanctions and Flynn said they could not, or should not, discuss those, but asked that they, the Russians, not escalate with retaliatory sanctions of their own, which according to the charging document, the Ambassador replied that they would hold off.

So, did they discuss the sanctions? If so, which ones?

IANAL, but "no" doesn't seem like a perjurous answer. A complete answer would be that the ambassador attempted to discuss them and Flynn stopped him.

This is sketchy... there is no part of the charging document that inplicates collusion on the election... Mueller is far afield and fishing.

 

[Alpo]

Well, Flynn and his lawyers agreed to the charge, so there's that.

 

[SheepDog4Life]

Flynn's Statement of Offense

"On or about December 22, 2016 a very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team directed Flynn to contract officials from foreign governments, including Russia, to learn where each government stood... and to influence those governments to delay or defeat the resolution."

-regarding UN vote on Israeli settlements.


^^^That's a problem when you're not in the sitting administration. Both for Flynn, and whomever directed him to do that.

That law has never, well once in two hundred years or so, been enforced and NEVER on an incoming administration. If Mueller dared, he would have included it as well as a conspiracy charge. He didn't because it's mute and his witch-hunt would be fully exposed had he done so.

 

[mtinner]

I miss Salma

 

[Alpo]

I miss Salma

Then you should learn how to use google images, son. She's married to a billionaire, so that's as close as you'll likely get.

 

[BugI02]

Flynn may or may not have violated a law.

What Flynn absolutely did was OPEN HIS MOUTH. And, allegedly, not tell the truth. He should do what everyone on this website has been told to do repeatedly. Shut the F up when questioned.

Flynn was under no compulsion to say anything. He was in Intelligence. He has lawyers. He has no reason to talk. If he had been given written interrogatories, he might have had a chance to think about what was said and not lied.

He violated his own basic rights and it is therefore difficult to find sympathy with him on this point.

However, the FBI might have been holding a lot more cards and let him off with a plea to lying. Who knows? Perhaps it will come out in future circumstances.

He lied under oath when he didn't have to. He lied to VP Pence.

Maybe he's just a liar. Or maybe there is fire underneath all that smoke.

It isn't "baseless".

Look at the squishy descriptors you are using. It is "baseless" because you have nothing factual to use to declare it otherwise. I suspect neither does the FBI

As usual, in these issues, I have an abiding suspicion of the dichotomous narrative. On the one hand the Trump administration is a chaotic amateur soap-opera that can't do anything right but on the other they are a well oiled machine working seamlessly to conceal their collusion with the Russians

I have enormous issues with the supposed unbiased actions of an organization whose former head leaked possibly classified information through a cut-out at Columbia and whose current special prosecutor ran the same organization during some pretty eye-opening abuses of power by Obama and company

Yet somehow you think these people are still boyscouts? What happened after Hoover's denouement apparently needs to happen again. Too much Clinton and Obama have allowed the weeds to grow back

 

[Alpo]

You apologize for an admitted felon. Fine. Keep plowing that row.

I see no upside for you.

A "well-oiled machine" they are not. Bumbling fools. Rank amateurs.

Just because you can get away with arm-twisting city council members in Newark for a high-rise doesn't mean the same rules apply with foreign powers. I know you don't like "feelings" and only want to talk about hard evidence (like birth certificates and Benghazi and Uranium One), but my feeling is that Kushner is headed for a major fall. He may be a wonderful person and patriot and it might be a shame to remove him from the White House. OTOH....

 

[SheepDog4Life]

Well, Flynn and his lawyers agreed to the charge, so there's that.

Mueller could have indicted Flynn with upteen different technical violations of Foreign Agent disclosure laws, and security briefing lapses (amended after the fact), which would have had little chance of winning in front of a jury (all were disclosed by his company, they just didn't name him personally). Some small risk of rolling snake-eyes for 60 years in prison but for sure bankrupting millions of dollars defending himself for years against Mueller's unlimited budget, and his son... or a slap on the wrist and be done?

 

[SheepDog4Life]

You apologize for an admitted felon. Fine. Keep plowing that row.

I see no upside for you.

A "well-oiled machine" they are not. Bumbling fools. Rank amateurs.

Yes, only little lies that don't conceal a crime, versus the big ones by their predecessors that concealed felonies and corruption... I'd rather not have those "pro's" in office.