[The Soup Nazi]

NOW WE'RE COOKING WITH GAS! From The Washington Post:

__________________________________________________ ______

Flynn could deliver a knockout blow to Trump
By Jennifer Rubin December 1 at 12:08 PM

The Post reports, “Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI. … Flynn’s admission … is an ominous sign for the White House, as court documents indicate Flynn is cooperating in the ongoing probe of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election.” ABC News reports, “Michael Flynn promised ‘full cooperation to the Mueller team’ and is prepared to testify that as a candidate, Donald Trump ‘directed him to make contact with the Russians.’ ” That could be direct testimony implicating the president of campaign collusion.

Flynn’s plea marks a dangerous turn. Flynn was a White House adviser, not a campaign aide. Moreover, there is no passing him off an errand boy or bit player. “Trump developed a close rapport with Flynn on the campaign trail, where the general delivered fiery denunciations of Hillary Clinton, including leading a ‘lock her up’ chant at the Republican National Convention, and he gave Trump much-needed national security credentials,” The Post reports. “Flynn, however, had a mixed reputation among other Trump aides, who thought he gave the president questionable information and questioned some of his business dealings.”

We don’t know for certain what cooperation Flynn is providing on what topic, but surely it would be hugely helpful to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. A series of news reports recently described potential liability stemming from Flynn’s failure to register as a foreign agent, his alleged involvement in a scheme to return to Turkey a cleric whom its president blames for a coup and promoting a nuclear power project on behalf of a client when Flynn was in the White House. To put all that aside, Mueller — not known as a pushover in plea deals — would have had to be confident that Flynn could implicate high-ups.

National security gurus with whom I spoke suggest Flynn could be of help in several areas. He might provide details of Russian influence actors — how they operated and how they contacted and connected with him. (We should remember this is still a counterintelligence investigation.) Flynn’s help could be related to former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has already been indicted for financial crimes relating to his connection with Russian players. Alternatively, Flynn’s help might be related to his dealings with President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, either with regard to alleged efforts to set up a “back channel” or with regard to Kushner’s own financial dealings with Russians. And, of most concern to Trump, Flynn could provide evidence relating to interference with the Russia probe, including Trump’s efforts to get then-FBI Director James B. Comey to lay off Flynn. The ABC News report, if accurate, suggests it is the latter, with fatal consequences for the Trump presidency.

Trump’s defenders will argue that this still does not touch on the underlying issue of collusion with Russia. That’s true but misses the point. If there was collusion, Flynn almost certainly would have known about it. He was both Trump’s closet foreign policy adviser and a pro-Russia operator who traveled to Russia to give a lavishly compensated speech and appeared on RT, Russia’s propaganda network, which he asserted was no different than any American news outlet. (RT has since be required to register as a foreign agent.) Trump can claim all he wants that the Russia investigation is a hoax, but if Flynn provides direct evidence implicating Trump, the president’s days in office are numbered.

Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.

__________________________________________________ ______

[evollove]

Yeah, but tax bill is gonna pass. So...

[The Soup Nazi]

Just read there's a song called "Lock Him Up" on Neil Young's new album, The Visitor, which was released today. Brilliant timing!

[ilduclo]

Mulvaney received about $475,000 in contributions from the financial, insurance, and real estate industries during his 2016 congressional campaign, including $9,200 from JPMorgan Chase, which was fined $4.6 million by the CFPB for failing to provide consumers with information about checking account denials; $6,000 from Wells Fargo, which was fined $100 million by the CFPB for the "widespread illegal practice of secretly opening unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts"; $8,000 from Citigroup, which was fined $8 million by the CFPB for "illegal debt sales and debt collection practices"; $7,500 from SunTrust Bank, which was fined $40 million by the CFPB to compensate Americans whose homes were foreclosed; and $9,250 from Bank of America, which was ordered by the CFPB to pay $727 million in relief to customers "harmed by practices related to credit card add-on products."

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

Just read there's a song called "Lock Him Up" on Neil Young's new album, The Visitor, which was released today. Brilliant timing!

WAIT - I misread the AllMusic review:

"The record opens up with a declaration that America is 'Already Great,'*and by the end, Young and Promise of the Real are chanting 'Lock Him Up' in an echo of the chant Michael Flynn led at the Republican National Convention in the summer of 2016".

So, fake news, I guess!

[tesla69]

Originally Posted by Robert Schunk

What constitutes a revolution is a question whose answer varies from time to time and from society to society, as revolution can involve casting aside the normal political process in favor of the machinery of war.

After reading your piece a few times, Robert, I can't help thinking the question should really be is if revolution can take place without war, specifically, without violent destructive war. Power does not usually give up its power, it needs to be taken. Governments fight each other through currency wars and propaganda wars

The Spectacle crows about cultural and technological "revolutions", and trivializes the real meaning with neverending revolutions in fashion and makeup!

[Severian]

Tax plan seems like it’s a-happenin’

I’m beyond furious. Been trying to stay sane which is why I’ve been avoiding this thread. But yeah... hostile corporate takeover of United States, now underway.

So long Medicare! Fare thee well, Medicaid! Buh-bye social security! Better luck next time, elderly people with cancer!

This was a hail Mary for a dying administration. Elections will simply be purchased outright from now on.

I’m gonna watch some fucking Seinfeld.

[!@#$%!]

jeezus fuck, thanks for ruining my evening.

i’ll worry about the rest of my life later

—

ps- it’s my fault for looking into this shit thread while drinking

[!@#$%!]

well, shit, i can deal with this much better in the morning

alea jacta est. or: into your hands i commit my spirit

ha!

fuck me.

anyway, for robert: poor robert! so innocent. you really believed the lies of your personal antichrist.

well, brace yourselves... here we go!

 

i pray for a quick death over a long agony

[Severian]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

jeezus fuck, thanks for ruining my evening.

i’ll worry about the rest of my life later

—

ps- it’s my fault for looking into this shit thread while drinking

Well I wrote that post after taking my evening klonipin, so I’d argue those are the only conditions under which one should engage at this point.

(Klonipin also reason for now-corrected typos, I’d imagine)

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Robert Schunk

This tax plan is the opposite of what this country needs right now. What is needed is massive public investment in infrastructure (both to create jobs and to repair the effects of neglect over past decades) financed by aggressively progressive income taxation, particularly on unearned income (interest, dividends, etc.). This marks the second great betrayal of Trump's voters this year, the first being his illegal attack on Syria.

This bill eliminates the estate tax, which primarily affects only the wealthiest (an exemption for family owned and operated farms and small businesses could easily have been arranged), and contains a backhanded (though not unconstitutional) slap at Federalism through the elimination of the state and local income tax deduction, which could limit the ability of the several states to raise their own tax revenue. It exacerbates wealth and income inequality in this country, which is our biggest problem right now.

If you want to know where this is headed, look up Governor Sam Brownback's Kansas. Save for the fact that Kansas' massive tax cuts also involved spending cuts, which this bill doesn't, adding about 1.5 trillion to the national debt.

Wow. I agree with you.

[!@#$%!]

anyway robert, as the contradictions of the system exacerbate (as the maoists would put it), you’ll have a better chance of your socialist revolution happening, and you’ll live happily ever after, under some tyrant, for decades to come. someone like... supreme leader ivanka, maybe? or little barron as pol-pot redux.

[Bytor Peltor]

The tax bill passed, but it’s not reform......it’s not a huge tax cut.

It’s altering the edges, a little smoke and mirrors. It will help some, possibly many......others will be hurt, but neither worthy of celebration nor weeping and gnashing of teeth.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Bytor Peltor

The tax bill passed, but it’s not reform......it’s not a huge tax cut.

It’s altering the edges, a little smoke and mirrors. It will help some, possibly many......others will be hurt, but neither worthy of celebration nor weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I disagree very strongly. This is a huge deal. This is a knife-twist. This is going to feed poverty (not people in poverty, but poverty itself), and widen the income gap. This is tailor-made to kept the rich rich and keep the poor poor.

$500 in tax cuts for someone making $35,000 a year isn’t going to mean shit when their health care is gone. This is a pestilential, malicious fucking corporate coup. Not business as usual.

Not that anything has been business as usual for some time now.

[!@#$%!]

it will temporarily juice the economy and win agent orange another term xD

then he’ll finally be impeached and pence wll take over for 8 years of taliban rule

looking for a place to flee to...

[LifeDistortion]

You take away the right to live a life simply because you don't have enough to pay a medical bill or even the ability to get a medical procedure this is just the kind of thing American citizens should be in an uproar about. No American in the modern age should die cause they couldn't afford a life saving medical procedure. Our four fathers revolted against the British for less. Sadly, the idea of a true second American revolution is probably unlikely, but again, we revolted for less.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Robert Schunk

Yet another uncalled-for insinuation that I support totalitarianism. The first time was when I was defending the Constitution, which i do quite habitually.

im not imputing malice here—only infinite, heartbreaking naiveté.

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Severian

I disagree very strongly. This is a huge deal. This is a knife-twist. This is going to feed poverty (not people in poverty, but poverty itself), and widen the income gap. This is tailor-made to kept the rich rich and keep the poor poor.

$500 in tax cuts for someone making $35,000 a year isn’t going to mean shit when their health care is gone. This is a pestilential, malicious fucking corporate coup. Not business as usual.

Not that anything has been business as usual for some time now.

Indeed. From https://fareedzakaria.com/2017/12/01...er-than-we-do/ :

Watching the Republican tax plan race through Congress, one is reminded of a big apparent difference between President Trump's program and other populist movements in the Western world. In the United States, Trump is leading something that is best described as plutocratic populism, a mixture of traditional populist causes with extreme libertarian ones.

Congress's own think tanks — the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office — calculate that in 10 years, people making between $50,000 and $75,000 (around the median income in the United States) would effectively pay a whopping $4 billion more in taxes, while people making $1 million or more would pay $5.8 billion less under the Senate bill. And that doesn't take into account the massive cuts in services, health care and other benefits that would likely result. Martin Wolf, the sober and fact-based chief economics commentator for the Financial Times, concludes, "This is a determined effort to shift resources from the bottom, middle and even upper middle of the U.S. income distribution toward the very top, combined with big increases in economic insecurity for the great majority."

[The Soup Nazi]

Jesus Christ Monkeyballs these guys are crooks. From Newsweek:

Jared Kushner Failed To Disclose He Led A Foundation Funding Illegal Israeli Settlements Before U.N. Vote

[tesla69]

Originally Posted by Robert Schunk

I stand by my post, as this country still has a (barely) functioning political system, so any electoral revolution can be as peaceful or violent as those overthrown allow...SNIP .

I think my issue is language, in that I think how we would define a revolution differs.

I would argue our political system is working perfectly as it was designed - to implement the will of the people. But the Will of the People is blunted and crushed, you can pick and choose why, I'd say its the result of 50 years of CIA disinformation replacing the national consciousness (I don't think we can understate the importance of billions of dollars being spent over generations to implement the policy then-CIA DIrector William Casey told Ronald Reagan:
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false"