Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

Yeah, DSL -- it's tough, right. So, if Flynn was meeting with the Russians in October about ISIS, then I don't care.

[THE_WIZARD_]

In the words of the great BHO...from each according to his ability, to each according to his need...

[Kapture1]

If none of the activity was illegal then it begs the question why these folks were lying about the contact with the Russians. Kapture might be right that an incoming president and his NSA have a right to undermine the acting administration sanctions, but codify it into law. Remove the Logan Act

Maybe inauguration should happen the next day, but as it is actively trying to undermine the existing administration goes against the tradition of one president at a time. If Kapture is right I fully expect Trump to argue that, but we have to see what Flynn testifies to as he is fully in cooperating with Special Counsel Mueller.

Every transition is in touch with foreign governments and ambassadors. They have to be.

Imagine as a CEO taking over a Fortune 500 company in 73 days. Replacing all the top personnel, developing a 100 day strategy, being ready to hit the ground running and implement changes in strategy on day 1.

Now imagine it's not a Fortune 500 company, but a 4 Trillion a year enterprise in just 73 days time. That is what it is like for an incoming administration. They HAVE to reach out to other countries and lay the groundwork on upcoming changes to strategy and start the process of building a relationship. In my estimation, 73 days isn't enough time.

[froot loops]

Then it should be fairly easy to remove the Logan Act or legislate an amendment to the Logan Act to account for what you are saying. On top of that, the current defense should be to easily identify all of the instances that previous incoming administrations tried to undermine the existing administration sanctions, if it's fairly common it won't be a problem.

Then again if it was fairly common, guys like Sessions, Flynn, Manafort wouldn't have lied about the contacts. If it was OK, they could have shouted from the mountaintops what they did. The existence of the Special Counsel comes directly from the lies.

[hack]

IMO, if you're going to rightfully push for nuance and high-level discussion, then you ought to clarify statements like this. Capitalism is, ultimately, anti-competitive if played to the end. But, for a large portion of any market life it's absolutely pro-competitive. I mean, I can pull definitions from practically everywhere that says that capitalism includes pro-competitive markets.

Saying that capitalism is non-competitive in a blanket fashion is surely the easiest way to get lost in the forest of an argument that doesn't particularly matter to your overall post.

My advice, of course, is worth exactly how much it costs. So, there's that.

Fair enough, sure. But I don't know that you measure it by definitions when you have a critical mass of data about realities on the ground. Every market-democracy has a trustbusting unit of some sort. Protecting the market from capitalism clearly requires that.

[iam416]

Right, that's not really up for debate. But that doesn't mean capitalist markets aren't pro-competitive for significant portions of their life cycle.

Anyway, see -- here we are lost in the esoteric trees. The upside is that no one other than perhaps Geezer was actually going to discuss your larger point with you, so nothing lost.

[hack]

Well I genuinely do think that markets and capitalism are separate things that have been artificially fused together, and that we need to separate them in order to have an intelligent discussion about economics. They do not go hand-in-hand nearly as much as we'd think they might. But you're right about Geezer, and that there's nothing lost.

[froot loops]

If you guys talk any further we'll inevitably have to talk Trust Busting Teddy Roosevelt: Great Prog or Greatest Prog ever?

[hack]

Until it's time to break up Amazon.

[Kapture1]

Then it should be fairly easy to remove the Logan Act or legislate an amendment to the Logan Act to account for what you are saying. On top of that, the current defense should be to easily identify all of the instances that previous incoming administrations tried to undermine the existing administration sanctions, if it's fairly common it won't be a problem.

Then again if it was fairly common, guys like Sessions, Flynn, Manafort wouldn't have lied about the contacts. If it was OK, they could have shouted from the mountaintops what they did. The existence of the Special Counsel comes directly from the lies.

and that seems to be all he is getting out of the investigation.


Have you seen a copy of the transcripts of Flynn's call with Kislyak? Because I haven't either. What context were the sanctions discussed? I have no idea, the media has never reported it, only speculation.

The FBI did, however, review the transcripts of the phone call and found nothing illicit



https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.94b62a942083


And this was Comey's FBI

[froot loops]

Did Flynn collude with the World Cup draw as well? That Russian group is outrageous.

[SeattleLionsFan]

SLF:

Why do you think democratic socialism leads to fantastic success?

I don't know that I can make that conclusion. I have been to Canada, the U.K., France and the Netherlands and they all seemed to be nice countries with a decently happy populace. Things seem to work ok, so I am always confused by folks who claim that socialism makes things a hell hole.

[hack]

None of those are socialist countries, either, if you go by the formal definition. They're just countries in which markets and capitalism aren't concepts carried through to an illogical extreme.

[froot loops]

After the Keillor news, I need to state unequivocally

Dave and Morley stories > Lake Wobegon stories

[THE_WIZARD_]

Was it Kierkegaard or Dick Van Patten who said....if you label me...you negate me?