Trump-Russia: Flynn's Dealings Were 'lawful'

[mikey4444]

Despite Flynn finally admitting his guilt, Trumps still doesn't believe he did anything wrong !

"Mr Flynn has entered a plea deal and agreed to co-operate with an inquiry into alleged collusion with Russia."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42209758

[Khandro]

Does any form of dealing with Russia represent "collusion"? Russia as a pariah state exists only in the eyes of Donald Trump's enemies.
This is all tiresome and boring.

[mikey4444]

Khandro....Trumps links with Russia may yet be his downfall. This latest development shows that the noose is starting to tighten.

My point is that even though Flynn has admitted his guilt, Trump still doesn't believe him. A saying with an ostrich and some sand comes to mind.

[Khandro]

" Alleged collusion" two interesting words, alleged by whom and what collusion?

[ichkeria]

Whether or not Fkynn did anything illegal or not you’ll forgive me if I don’t take Trump’s word for it.

[-Talbot-]

As he gone yet?

[-Talbot-]

H

[Gromit]

Trump might be right, colluding with a foreign state during an election might be lawful, I do not know the US law. Lying to the FBI, which is what Flynn has been charged with IS illegal.
Trump is claiming Flynn is innocent of a crime that he has NOT been charged with.

[Khandro]

Lying to FBI may be illegal; but what about the FBI lying to us, which they do continually and give out misinformation?

[ichkeria]

Conniving with agents of an enemy state has got to have some sort of disapproval rating written down somewhere :-)
Trump’s behaviour does suggest he is ill in fairness

[Khandro]

Ichi; //Conniving with agents of an enemy state//
I didn't know Russia was an "enemy state". Hard to believe when so much trading takes place; "Goods exports totalled $11.2 billion; Goods imports totalled $27.0 billion. The U.S. goods trade deficit with Russia was $15.8 billion, in 2013 Russia was the United States 28th largest goods export market".
Germany and Italy are almost completely dependant or Russia for gas and oil imports, --- strange enemy!

[Gromit]

Khandro
Outside interference in the US Election by ANY foreign state, friend or foe, is not acceptable. For a foreign state to collude (or act with the knowledge of US politicians) is very serious. Obviously the foreign state is acting in their interest, and not the American peoples’ interest, and therefoe anyone involved in such deception is putting Party before State and should face the consequences.

[ichkeria]

Russia has finally been raised back to a ‘tier one’ threat by the UK’s national security council. If you really do not think that country is a threat then you don’t live in the real world

[ichkeria]

and I’d say furthermore that an enemy on whom one depends for ones energy is a particularly dangerous one.

[jim360]

I'm happy to accept the principle that calling Russia an "enemy" state is maybe a little too inflammatory rhetoric, but it's clear that Russia's national interests are, to say the last, not well-aligned with ours.

What bothers me is that there are a surprisingly large number of people who view that as meaning that *our* interests need to change, rather than the other way round.

[jim360]

And what's even more concerning is that Trump is pretty clearly one of those people. I don't think that there was any active collusion between Trump and Russia (although the Mueller investigation continues, so who knows what else it will turn up?) but he's doing his level best to give the impression of it. Putin is, after all, about the only foreign leader Trump hasn't got around to criticising yet (the others including Erdogan, Duterte and Assad); and in various interviews Trump seems happy to plug the Putin-esque line of "The US is as bad as Russia so who cares what Russia gets up to?", and diss US security services and leaders with abandon.

He went after the FBI only today, for example.

[ichkeria]

I think ‘enemy’ is wholly realistic

[jim360]

Maybe so, but even if not I was attempting to argue that the "middle ground" doesn't make this look pretty either.

Speculation is that Flynn has a lot to say about others close to Trump. How close can it get before people start to concede that either Trump knew about this all himself, or is just hopelessly unaware of what goes on around him?

[ichkeria]

As people may know there are many Russians who regard their country as the natural successor to the first two Roman empires (Rome, Constantinople, then Moscow as the ideal path of destiny) To them Britain is the new ‘Carthage’ and what was it Cato harangued the senate with? ‘Delenda est Carthago’ - Carthage must be destroyed. Oh that doesn’t mean Putin is about to nuke London of course: modern ‘warfare’ is not about that. But the interests are seemingly so far removed from ours as to be those of an enemy. For the foreseeable future unless and until something changes

[Khandro]

Gromit; //Outside interference in the US Election by ANY foreign state, friend or foe, is not acceptable. //
Obviously true, but what evidence is there that any interference has taken place? - non whatsoever. Spying on others does not represent interference with an election.
America was not long ago hacking into Merkel's mobile phone and presumably, still everyone else's.