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--- Jim Sciutto ?Verified account @jimsciutto 37 seconds ago

Breaking: Russians believed they would be able to use Michael Flynn to influence Pres. Trump & his advisors, multiple sources tell #CNN ---

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/19/politics/michael-flynn-donald-trump-russia-influence/index.html

:::: Washington (CNN) Russian officials bragged in conversations during the presidential campaign that they had cultivated a strong relationship with former Trump adviser retired Gen. Michael Flynn and believed they could use him to influence Donald Trump and his team, sources told CNN.

The conversations deeply concerned US intelligence officials, some of whom acted on their own to limit how much sensitive information they shared with Flynn, who was tapped to become Trump's national security adviser, current and former governments officials said.

"This was a five-alarm fire from early on," one former Obama administration official said, "the way the Russians were talking about him." Another former administration official said Flynn was viewed as a potential national security problem.

The conversations picked up by US intelligence officials indicated the Russians regarded Flynn as an ally, sources said. That relationship developed throughout 2016, months before Flynn was caught on an intercepted call in December speaking with Russia's ambassador in Washington, Sergey Kislyak. That call, and Flynn's changing story about it, ultimately led to his firing as Trump's first national security adviser. ::::

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[rzemanfl]

2. K&R n/t

[roamer65]

3. The IC is in full bore leak mode.

I love it. Keep on 'a leakin!

[iluvtennis]

8. +++ agree

[babylonsister]

4. Blackmail, as Yates feared. nt

[ecstatic]

5. And yet, there was nothing anyone could do besides wait for Trump to do the right thing.

We have glaring holes in our system of government. Thank GOD for good journalism!

[Honeycombe8]

6. Doesn't that really mean, tho, that they did not have influence on Trump directly?

Doesn't it mean that the Russians and Trump weren't in cahoots together, if the Russians needed someone to "influence" Trump?

[gratuitous]

11. No, it means President Short Attention Span needs constant monitoring

If he's not getting your message 24-7, he'll wander away and who knows where he'll surface?

[spanone]

7. THE HITS KEEP COMING!!!!!

?

[Leghorn21]

12. ...and it hurts SO GOOD! eom

[GeoWilliam750]

9. What the Republicans do not seem to get

Is that there is a very high probability that the Russians knew they were being listened to, watched, followed, and monitored through the whole thing. It is almost certain that the Russians knew these things would be heard, and it is a strong probability that they were intended to be heard.

The Russians have played the Republicans for some of the biggest chumps in the world - and it worked even better than they could have reasonably hoped. It will probably continue for some time, with further severe damage to the US, that will take many years to repair, if it can ever be repaired. With very few resources, and little investment, Putin has shaken the US to its foundations.

As Lincoln said:

“From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.”

Another version:

"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."

Lincoln then warned that a tyrant could overtake the American political system from within.[4] He said:

"It is to deny what the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. And when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion as others have done before them. The question then is, Can that gratification be found in supporting and maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found whose ambition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion or the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? Never! Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And when such an one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs. Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down."

To prevent this, Lincoln concluded that there was a need to cultivate a "political religion" that emphasizes "reverence for the laws" and puts reliance on "reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason."

[dalton99a]

10. Kick.

[theglammistress]

13. Today has been unreal

The amount of sheer MASSIVE stories that have dumped this afternoon/evening is just jaw dropping.

It's day 119. Media are openly talking impeachment and the White House is researching impeachment.

We warned everyone it would be this way. Constant chaos. Very dangerous for this country. Here we are.

[SHRED]

14. More like the downfall of trump

[Quixote1818]

15. So what happens to a General who commits Treason on this level?

If they are proven guilty?