What Happened to Mike Flynn? (The Atlantic)

[Nevilledog]

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Richard Signorelli
@richsignorelli
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Interesting and scary deep dive.
"The man had once had an outstanding career in military intelligence, a field that values discernment and reason, evidence and verification. Now he looked high on his own supply," @bartongellman writes:

theatlantic.com
What Happened to Mike Flynn?
In military intelligence, he was renowned for his skill connecting the dots and finding terrorists. But somewhere along the way, his dot detector began spinning out of control.
7:28 PM · Jul 9, 2022

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/michael-flynn-conspiracy-theories-january-6-trump/661439/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/BO2si

*snip*

“General Flynn, do you believe in the peaceful transition of power in the United States of America?” she asked.

“The Fifth,” he repeated.

It was a surreal moment: Here was a retired three-star general and former national security adviser refusing to opine on the foundational requirement of a constitutional democracy. Flynn had sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Rule of law had been drilled into him for decades in the Army.

Now, by invoking the right against self-incrimination, he was asserting that his beliefs about lawful succession could expose him to criminal charges. That could not be literally true—beliefs have absolute protection under the First Amendment—but his lawyer might well have worried about where Cheney’s line of questioning would lead.

Flynn had said publicly that President Donald Trump could declare martial law and “re-run” the presidential election he had lost. He and Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s lawyers, had turned up in the Oval Office on December 18, 2020, with a draft executive order instructing the Defense Department to seize the voting machines that recorded Trump’s defeat. Flynn and Roger Stone, the self-described political dirty trickster, were the two men Trump made a point of asking his chief of staff to call on January 5, on the eve of insurrection, according to Cassidy Hutchinson’s recent testimony before the January 6 committee.

All of which raises a question: What happened to Michael Flynn?

*snip*

[usonian]

1. Dinner

[rubbersole]

6. Answered.

[Baked Potato]

2. I think Flynn got real close to parlaying his extraordinary

contacts and connections into big cash, but it vaporized by getting in T***P’s camp. I think his skills and contacts enabled him to link up with less than honorable characters who enticed him with the promise of big money.

Getting fired from DIA destroyed his future in making big $$ as a former General enriching himself in the various MIC positions. So, he joined the vaudeville show.

[uponit7771]

9. +1, "Getting fired from DIA destroyed his future in making big $$ "

[Hekate]

3. Well worth the long read. The author got some respected senior officers to talk about Flynn...

Some people spoke anonymously, yet were quoted by others who were not afraid to use their own names. They were, to a man, aghast at how he spiraled out of control after his firing.

I’d had no idea that in his earlier career he’d been really — well, beyond competent, extremely good at what he was tasked to do. It was only in his last post that he floundered, badly.

He went from a very black and white military world to supervising 14,000 people, mostly civilians. Obama had nothing to do with Flynn’s firing, zero, it was all handled in the Pentagon — yet Flynn blamed Obama and latched on to anyone who would carry that tale and embellish it.

Bitter, bitter. And now untethered from reality. His former colleagues and mentors have been aghast, and have spoken privately before this about the possibility of mental illness or mental decline.

Recommended.

[AverageOldGuy]

4. It's not that simple

There are different concentrations in the intell world -- Flynn was good at tactical intell, that is, the intelligence needed for military operations -- where is the enemy, in what strength, what are the indicators of his intentions. When he was named to head the Defense Intelligence Agency it was because of his record in tactical intell -- he was not capable of raising his sights out of the tactical arena into the strategic world.

I served 28 years in the Army -- 5 as an artilleryman (two tours in Vietnam), then 23 years in intell, 20 of those in DIA assignments. I maintain contact with several DIA civilians who served under Flynn. All of them had contact with him at DIA, some reported directly to him, they all describe him the same way:
-- Flynn is the smartest person in the room and if you don't believe it, just ask him.
-- His mind was made up and he did not want to be confused with facts.
-- He was virulently anti-Muslim.
-- He downplayed the menace from Russia, believing instead that the West needed to unite with Russia against the "radical Muslim threat".
-- He spoke disparagingly of President Obama, which made everyone very uncomfortable.

[Hekate]

7. That came out in the article pretty well

I got more interested in his story than I had expected to.

[uponit7771]

8. Reminds me of every coward racist in the "professional" world, this close from saying the N Word

... as a matter of course but there were too many non racist around him.

Half asses proficient at some narrow niche shit outside of that narrow realm aint worth a damn