President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

On a story of this magnitude and this much competition, if you're still the only one reporting a massive detail six of eight hours in, you've got to start getting a little antsy.
When Ross was still on that island alone by mid-afternoon, I figured the "candidate Trump" portion was probably off.

 

"Whew. Glad John Dean agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice so that now this whole thing can go away and we can get back to governing. If they had more on him, he would have had to plead to that too."

–SJ.com, 1973

 

I figure it has been mentioned already, but the fact Flynn pleaded guilty to something AND is cooperating with the Feds almost guarantees there are other charges that he is/could be facing if the Feds decide he isn't cooperating enough. They get the plea and his sentencing (a max of five years in the can) and not filing other charges depends on what his cooperation yields. The plea is important because it locks him in to cooperate.

 

SJ.com circa 1972/73 would have two-thirds of the board convinced that Hugh Sloan would be testifying against Nixon at any moment. @YankeeFan would revel in the Woodward/Bernstein mistake vis-a-vis Haldeman, and half a dozen posters would be wailing that the details they fucked up are “just a buncha bullshit.”

 

This former federal prosecutor I read — he’s done a big case or two — is suggesting that might not be the case. But there’s this English professor in New Hampshire and various and sundry sophomore-level SJWs who’re certain he doesn’t have the first fucking clue. Who’s to know?

 

Flynn doesn't strike me as a guy who would say "Ok, you got me - I plead guilty" and then cooperate on top of it without getting something out of it. I think if this was all they had, he would fight it and wait for the pardon. It's called a plead deal for a reason. What surprised me is that he was working with Trump attorneys up to a week ago - who knows what was said in those meetings.

 

I've decided that the American tax code is not something I need to worry about, but I have to wonder: Does anybody down there feel good about where the country is headed right now? Like, America just seems like one giant clusterfuck. It looks, from only a little distance, like a death spiral. I don't see how you even begin to fix it.

 

ABC fucked up. The rest of the media did fine.

 

It's another black eye and fodder for the fake news folks. Way too many self-inflicted wounds.

 

Agreed. But there might not be a generalization I loathe more than "the media." It's about the farthest you can get from a monolith.

 

Exactly zero people outside the industry will make the distinction.

 

There was a hell of a lot more hate from Trump supporters when he didn't stand with the president than there has been from people who disagree with his vote on the tax bill. Yet another case of you, YF and the other apologists on your side thinking you have a gotcha that doesn't exist.