Michael Flynn Resigns As Trump's National Security Adviser (go.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ABC News: President Donald Trump's embattled national security adviser Michael Flynn, who faced questions about a call to the Russian ambassador prior to the inauguration, has resigned. Retired Army General Keith Kellogg was named acting national security adviser to replace Flynn. ABC News reported Monday that Flynn called Vice President Mike Pence on Friday to apologize for misleading him about his conversation with the ambassador in November. Flynn previously denied that he spoke about sanctions the U.S. imposed on Russia for its suspected interference in the 2016 election, a claim repeated by Pence in January. An administration official later claimed Pence was relying on information provided to him by Flynn. In his resignation later, Flynn cited the "fast pace of events" for "inadvertently" briefing "the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding [his] phone calls with the Russian Ambassador." You can view Flynn's full resignation letter, as provided by the White House, here.

Comments

Conversations before Appointment

[Anonymous Coward]

And it's far worse. He had conversations BEFORE he was appointed by Trump. The Russian Ambassador KNEW he would be appointed.

Remember Trump's "only I know who will be my choices"?? comment? Well no, Putin and the Russians had an in too.

And the timing of those calls, matched up with the stated timings in the pee memos. Giving further credence to the pee memos.

The pee memos, list Putin's courting of Flynn back in August, way before the election. So Putin picked this man back in August way before Trump picked him. Which places Trump's thoughts in Putin's head by some sort of mind-meld..... or more likely, the two worked together to put Trump in power, which means Trump committed treason to be President.

At this point, GOP need to clean house. They'll be left with Mike Pence as President, whose believed to be a Republican American, pro-business, pro-trade, pro-security. Not this Russian asshole who lies, blocks cyber-security bills, defend Russian attacks on Ukraine, removes Generals from the National Security Council meetings (FFS that's their job!), attacks NATO, attacks allies, defends Putin, attacks America, repeats Putin lies about Syria, attacks the Judicial system, defends Putin some more.... yeh we get it.

Re:Conversations before Appointment

[MightyMartian]

I think we are a long way from a Trump impeachment and conviction. I still can't see the Republicans sacrificing themselves when they control Congress and, at least no.inally the White House.

The smarter way to play this is to let Trump destroy his credibility and remaining political capital, and then inform him that he can either hand over day to day governance to Pence and then spend the rest of his term playing President on TV, or face impeachment. You get an effective Pence presidency without the nightmare that would be a forced removal from office.

Re:Okay - that was quick.

[MightyMartian]

I think that ability on their part is fading fast. The polls showing Trump's precipitous fall in popularity tell the story of a presidency in the kind of crisis that hasn't been seen since Iran-Contra or the Lewinsky affair, and, as with Watergate before it, those scandals didn't hit until second terms. The fact that one of Trump's longest supporters has been outed being chatty with the Russian Ambassador just weeks into the Presidency just blows me away. This is like a presidency on amphetamines.

Re:#PresidentTweety is an abuser of technology

[shanen]

My (repeated and ignored) suggestion would be a maturity filter. A kill list can handle long-lived trolls, but the maturity filter would deal with the fresh sock puppets. It should be an option, but I'd set mine for about 2 months as the youngest identity I could see.

I think it should also include a self-debasing feature. If a troll (or disposable sock puppet) replies to someone who won't see it, there would be a warning first, and if the warning is ignored, the comment would get a prefix warning like "Not a sincere reply, since [ID] was notified this comment is not visible to the ostensible recipient."

(I'm not doing a good job of putting my Slashdot affairs in order before departing...)

Re:Okay - that was quick.

[silentcoder]

The selection pool is actually limited to "very rich people" but Trump makes exceptions for people who have publicly said things he likes to hear. Trouble is he only TRUSTS rich people. Like many rich people, he assumes everybody who isn't rich is trying to rob him - and regardless of how he blew smoke up their asses on the campaign trail it's becoming extremely clear that he distrusts anybody who isn't very wealthy.
You can see the fracture lines all over the white house and the ones struggling are constantly those who aren't rich. Bannon has caused some serious fuck-ups, up to getting himself on the national security commission (and leaks suggest Trump didn't like that and hadn't known what he was signing) ... but his position is secure, Trump trusts him because Bannon is rich. Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer on the other hand are getting constant flack from their boss - those two have actually done a halfway decent job, to the extent that it's possible in this administration. Spicer's sheer exasperation is visible every time he has to stand before the American people and say something flagrantly ridiculous because that's what the boss wants. Yet he had done it, even if he had to resort to prefacing it with "the president really does believe that..."

Which is what you normally preface a statement with when you have difficulty accepting that the person under discussion can really belief something that stupid...

But either way - he's done exactly the job Trump wanted him to do. The guy hitched his wagon to a star (even if it was a red dwarf) to jump the capitol-hill line to the front but he's been loyally toeing the boss's line ever since, and yet his loyalty isn't being rewarded, he's just getting crapped on because we won't believe the bullshit Trump sends him to relay.
What's the real difference between Steve "I wasn't happy with how much power you gave me so I tricked you into giving me more because I'm just using you" Bannon and Sean "Yes sir, I'll tell them exactly what you want me to tell them" Spicer ? Spicer isn't rich.

Re:Okay - that was quick.

[MachineShedFred]

Yeah, except that all of those Republicans don't get to name nominees. They only get to "advise and consent" if they are sitting members of the United States Senate - and that advice can be freely ignored by the President, who has the sole power to appoint cabinet nominees for Senate confirmation.

If you want to see a real horror show of government, it would be Trump White House vs. the United States Congress. Vetoing bills out of spite, sending even more unqualified people for confirmation just to troll the Senate, etc. And don't think this guy wouldn't do it.

Re:Okay - that was quick.

[sg_oneill]

I kind of feel sorry for the people that brought his whole line about fighting money in politics and draining the swamp.

Sure he fired all the policy wonks, but now he's just got a white house full of money-in-politics and nobody knows what they are doing, and all the people who would normally say "No Mr President thats an extremely bad idea" to an incoming greenhorn have been fired or sidelined. I mean it was obvious to me what was gonna happen, but i've been around the block a few times and seen plenty of similar types go into govenor roles and completely screw the whole place up. These alt-right people, I just dont know about . Pepe memes and actually believing fox-news conspiracy theories does not make for a particularly useful political movement.