All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Tami]

Senior Iraqi officials tell us that Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi is interpreting last night’s letter from the U.S. military commander in Baghdad as a “withdrawal announcement,” even as Pentagon officials describe its sharing as a mistake

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[jetengine]

Twitter Link

Sounds like Iraq doesn't want any of this

[Malvolio]

How Trump sees the world:

[GindyPosts]

How Trump sees the world:

If it's anything like Trump's other products, I assume it came missing a few pieces and instructions on how to play Stratego.

[SquirrelMan]

Twitter Link

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How is that kind of amateur hour making America great again?

Asking for a child in a cage.

[SquirrelMan]

Flynn dug his own grave here.

Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn deserves up to six months in prison, the Justice Department said Tuesday, reversing its earlier stance.

The government's sentencing memo is a sharp rebuke to Flynn's new legal team, which for months has attacked special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and accused prosecutors of withholding information that they said was favorable to their client. A judge rejected those arguments last month.

Any prison sentence for Flynn would continue a precipitous fall for the former Army lieutenant general, who after a long career in Iraq and Afghanistan was entrusted with shaping the Trump administration's national security policy but became entangled early on in the FBI's investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Flynn, who led “Lock Her Up" chants directed at Hillary Clinton during the Republican National Convention, is the only former White House official to have been charged in Mueller's Russia investigation.

The sentencing recommendation bookends Flynn's path from valued, high-level government cooperator to a defendant who prosecutors say no longer deserves any credit for helping the government.
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“Indeed, the government has reason to believe, through representations by the defendant’s counsel, that the defendant has retreated from his acceptance of responsibility in this case regarding his lies to the FBI," prosecutors wrote in seeking a sentence of up to six months.

“For that reason, the government asks this Court to inquire of the defendant as to whether he maintains those apparent statements of innocence or whether he disavows them and fully accepts responsibility for his criminal conduct," they added.

Sidney Powell, a lawyer for Flynn, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Defense lawyers will submit their own filing later this month.

Flynn was to have been sentenced in December 2018 for lying to the FBI about his conversations with the then-Russian ambassador to the United States, including about his request that Russia not escalate tensions with the U.S. in response to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration for election interference.

But the hearing was abruptly postponed midway through it at Flynn's request after scathing criticism from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan raised the prospect that he might send him to prison, even though prosecutors hadn't recommended that punishment. Flynn asked that the hearing be put off so that he could continue cooperating with prosecutors in hopes of avoiding any prison time.

The case has taken a tumultuous turn since then.

The Justice Department opted not to have Flynn testify in the Virginia trial of a former business associate, saying that just before trial, he had changed his account and contradicted his own past statements. The decision denied Flynn a chance to be credited for that cooperation,

He also fired his lawyers and replaced them with new ones who have taken a strikingly contentious stance toward Mueller's investigation, accusing FBI agents of effectively entrapping Flynn when they interviewed him at the White House and saying prosecutors had withheld documents and other information favorable to Flynn. Sullivan rejected each of the defense arguments in a lengthy opinion last month.



Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-n...#storylink=cpy

[WestPhillyPunisher]

How is that kind of amateur hour making America great again?

Asking for a child in a cage.

To quote a certain Hall of Fame football coach:

[Gray Lensman]

Flynn dug his own grave here.

Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn deserves up to six months in prison, the Justice Department said Tuesday, reversing its earlier stance.

I like the fact that what you quoted has the text for an ad in the middle of it, because it's a perfect metaphor for the grift and graft that this administration is built upon (along with a few other things, of course.).

[Gray Lensman]

6.4 magnitude earthquake strikes Puerto Rico, injuring eight people

At least Trump won't be throwing paper towels.

He is no longer pretending to care - someone from there criticized him once so it's open hatred only from now on.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

He is no longer pretending to care - someone from there criticized him once so it's open hatred only from now on.

Given that Trump lives for grudges and nurses them like a mother nurses a child, he’ll never forget or forgive that slight.

[Tami]

Given that Trump lives for grudges and nurses them like a mother nurses a child, he’ll never forget or forgive that slight.

I don't know of any mother that nurses as long as Trump does.

[numberthirty]

I'm not saying it means progressives can't win. It does show a progressive underperforming centrists in other states that went for Trump just as narrowly.

It highlights a dilemma for progressives: how much is it worth an increased chance of losing in order to get candidates who will make bolder decisions when in office?

Yeah, I caught that.

That said, there's some obvious issues with what feels like you trying to make an "Apples"/"Apples" comparison between the two.

Those "Centrists" that you mentioned. Do they have anything in common?

If they do, is it something that creates a glaring difference between them and the "Progressive" instance that you brought up?

[Robotman]

Well Iran has apparently fired missiles at a US installation in Iraq.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Well Iran has apparently fired missiles at a US installation in Iraq.

https://abcnews.go.com/International...ZCBIX_LNA4yS9g

Yeah its being reported this happened minutes ago.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

https://abcnews.go.com/International...ZCBIX_LNA4yS9g

Yeah its being reported this happened minutes ago.

Just got an alert about it. No wonder Iraq wants U.S. troops out. **** is getting deep.