It's a 600 by 338 (pixels) image file in the still commonly used JPG format. An online image editor was exploited to superimpose the very recognizable face of former Trump administration White House National Security Advisor and Trump campaign advisor, Lt. General (retired; U.S. Army) Michael (Mike) Flynn, onto a photograph of the Great Sphinx of Giza, to create a photo collage. Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017.
In the best tradition of the computer-augmented photo collage technique, a transparency effect was selected to alter the image of Michael Flynn. This creates the impression of an ephemeral or ghost-like Michael Flynn. The Sphinx seems to be looking through this 21st century apparition from behind. It's as if the ancient monument's nearly 5000-year gaze upon the Giza Plateau continues, unaffected by, and perhaps even dismissive of the former White House National Security Advisor. The scene is evocative of Flynn's controversial dismissal from the White House National Security Council, just 24 days after he was appointed to lead it.
The collage was completed with a simple, horizontal text overlay, superimposed across the top, declaring that "General Flynn has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it." This is a reference to March 30, 2017, when Michael Flynn's lawyer, Robert Kelner, released a statement about Mr. Flynn's willingness to testify before House and Senate subcommittees that were investigating Russian meddling in the U.S. 2016 elections, in exchange for immunity against being prosecuted himself.
After or below the collage itself, the idiomatic expression " Just Sayin' " was placed like a caption: a somewhat cryptic explanation, it would seem, for this online offering.
What does it mean?
Mike Flynn was at the epicenter of a swirling cloud of controversies about the Trump campaign organization, the Trump presidential transition team, and ultimately, the Trump administration itself.
The collage was completed on July 10, 2017. This was before Mr. Flynn was granted any kind of immunity from being prosecuted, and before he gave any kind of testimony. So the collage was intended to express a mood of uncertainty and pensiveness about the role that the retired general might have in steering the various investigations that were underway, in the House, the Senate, and the FBI investigation, which was being led by Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III.
There was an air of mystery about whether or when Mike Flynn might be called upon to testify, and about what kind of testimony he would provide. What are the scenes or images in the collective psyche that most effectively convey an air of mystery? Almost immediately, the Great Sphinx of Giza suggests itself from the storehouse of latent memories. So much about the Sphinx has been clouded in mystery. (Although the latest archaeological investigations are finally dispelling much of the mystery.)
What more is there to know?
General Chaos What the removal of Michael Flynn from the National Security Council reveals about Donald Trump's White House. Nicholas Schmidle for the New Yorker; February 27, 2017. http://www.newyorker.com/ma...-flynn-general-chaos
What Mike Flynn did for Turkey New information about Flynn’s involvement with Turkey raises new questions about his judgment, and about the nascent Trump administration’s apparent blindness to Flynn's foreign conflicts of interest. Nicholas Schmidle for the New Yorker; March 16, 2017. http://www.newyorker.com/ne...flynn-did-for-turkey
How Michael Flynn’s Disdain for Limits Led to a Legal Quagmire Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, tried to build a lucrative consulting business after he was fired by the military. Instead, he sparked a scandal. Nicholas Confessore, Matthew Rosenberg and Danny Hakim, for the New York Times; June 18, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/201...tel-group-trump.html
At first I was going to say that you should keep your powder dry for the day a real scandal shows up.
However I realized that as Liberal you wouldn't get that analogy. You'd just think to yourself "Why is Ray-Ray talking about the compact case in my man purse?"
So instead, because you said you like literary references I'll just leave this here -
A shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a village, brought out the villagers three or four times by crying out, "Wolf! Wolf!" and when his neighbors came to help him, laughed at them for their pains.
The Wolf, however, did truly come at last.
The Shepherd-boy, now really alarmed, shouted in an agony of terror: "Pray, do come and help me; the Wolf is killing the sheep"; but no one paid any heed to his cries, nor rendered any assistance. The Wolf, having no cause of fear, at his leisure lacerated or destroyed the whole flock.
There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Who knew? Aesop was tired of fake news all the way back in 600 BCE.
At first I was going to say that you should keep your powder dry for the day a real scandal shows up.
However I realized that as Liberal you wouldn't get that analogy. You'd just think to yourself "Why is Ray-Ray talking about the compact case in my man purse?"
Mike Flynn was at the epicenter of a swirling cloud of controversies about the Trump campaign organization, the Trump presidential transition team, and ultimately, the Trump administration itself.
Lawmakers failed to seize on an alarming development in the Russia collusion story last week, one that should spark serious and immediate congressional inquiry.
But it didn’t involve President Trump or his administration.
During a heated Fox Business interview with Maria Bartiromo, Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chief John Podesta made a series of misleading statements when questioned about his involvement in a company that received $35 million from the Russian government while Clinton served as secretary of state.
In 2011, a small green-energy company, Joule Unlimited, announced Podesta’s appointment to its board. Months later, Rusnano, a Kremlin-backed investment fund founded by Vladimir Putin, pumped $35 million into Joule. Serving alongside Podesta on Joule’s board were senior Russian official Anatoly Chubais and oligarch Ruben Vardanyan, who has been appointed by Putin to a Russian economic modernization council.
Podesta owned 75,000 shares of Joule stock. When he joined the Obama White House, Podesta transferred his Joule shares to an LLC controlled by his adult children.
After leaving the White House and joining the Clinton campaign, Podesta resumed communicating with Joule and its investors. In fact, he received an invoice from his lawyers in April 2015 — a consent request for Dmitry Akhanov of Rusnano USA to join Joule’s board.
In an interview with Fox News, Podesta contended: “I was on the board of an American company that did business here and only here. The Russian company had a small investment in that company.” It’s true that Joule was based in Massachusetts, but its connection with Russia was clear. Schweizer points out:
While thanking Putin’s Rusnano, [Joule’s CEO and president] said the investment would help support “the development of our global presence” and “complements the company’s expansion plans in Europe, the Middle East, and Mexico.” Moreover, Stichting Joule [one of the three entities that made up Joule International] is itself an overseas entity. Indeed, Rusnano’s investment in Joule was in part to develop a manufacturing facility in Russia.
The acting director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, told Congress on Thursday that President Trump's firing of James Comey has not derailed the agency's investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Hillary Clinton campaign. Which is good news. Despite Mrs. Clinton's assertion that the idea of collusion is "a total hoax," and despite many unknowns, the links continue to pile up. Here is a partial accounting of the connections we do know something about.
THE CLINTON FAMILY BUSINESS There may be no Clinton Foundation office in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but it is not for lack of trying. Bill Clinton received half a million dollars in 2010 for a speech he gave in Moscow, paid by a Russian firm, Renaissance Capital, that has ties to Russian intelligence. The Clinton Foundation took money from Russian officials and oligarchs, including Victor Kekselberg, a Putin confidant. The Foundation also received millions of dollars from Uranium One, which was sold to the Russian government in 2010, giving Russia control of 20% of the uranium deposits in the U.S. — the sale required approval from Hillary Clinton's State Department. What's more, at least some of these donations weren't disclosed. "Ian Telfer, the head of the Russian government's uranium company, Uranium One, made four foreign donations totaling $2.35 million to the Clinton Foundation. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all such donors," the Times has reported.
So, it's what about Hillary Clinton? time (again.)
This is how What About-ism works...
Donald Trump "What about designated Obama successor Hillary Clinton?" Barack Obama "What about George W. Bush?" George W. Bush "What about Bill Clinton?" ... John Adams "What about George Washington?" George Washington "What about it?"
from the "Morning Judge Show" on FOX News The defendant, although clearly judged guilty beyond any shadow of doubt, is now free to go. After all, this government didn't prosecute the last person who committed that crime.
I didn't expect to see so many apparent Mike Flynn enthusiasts checking in here.
Liberals, not liberals... whatever. My thoughts about the ascendancy of Donald Trump and his entourage to the White House can be condensed to just one, simple emoticon:
As I posted here some weeks ago, if I knew how the Trump Show was going to "play" during its first six months on Pennsylvania Avenue, I'd have voted for him myself. Keeping up with the cable TV news cycle has never had so much appeal for me, before.
HAGO... and tell you're friends about this new online art exhibition. Open for viewing 24/7, and free of charge.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 07-12-2017).]
So, it's what about Hillary Clinton? time (again.)
This is how What About-ism works...
Donald Trump "What about designated Obama successor Hillary Clinton?" Barack Obama "What about George W. Bush?" George W. Bush "What about Bill Clinton?" ... John Adams "What about George Washington?" George Washington "What about it?"
from the "Morning Judge Show" on FOX News The defendant, although clearly judged guilty beyond any shadow of doubt, is now free to go. After all, this government didn't prosecute the last person who committed that crime.
I didn't expect to see so many apparent Mike Flynn enthusiasts checking in here.
Liberals, not liberals... whatever. My thoughts about the ascendancy of Donald Trump and his entourage to the White House can be condensed to just one, simple emoticon:
As I posted here some weeks ago, if I knew how the Trump Show was going to "play" during its first six months on Pennsylvania Avenue, I'd have voted for him myself. Keeping up with the cable TV news cycle has never had so much appeal for me, before.
HAGO... and tell you're friends about this new online art exhibition. Open for viewing 24/7, and free of charge.
Nope! You know fully what this is about. It is about the hypocrisy of the left. It is about the caterwauling they do about the nothing-burger that is the Trump/Russian collusion while ignoring their own deeds. It is about using a chink in the armor of ANYone who doesn't drink their kool-aide as a cover for the dishonesty on their side of the aisle.
Was Mike Flynn ever "one of the adults in the room?" No freakin' way. Yeah, there was a time when he served our nation in exemplary fashion, but that time had already come to its end, about a year (I think) before he got hooked up with the Trump campaign. After Flynn got the "boot" and was no longer the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency or an active-duty military officer, he got radicalized.
Is President Trump one of the "adults in the room?" No freakin' way. I figured Trump as a bullshit artist from the get-go. The most I can say for Trump (so far) is that SOME of the people he's put on board are "adults in the room." And that isn't a small thing. This new FBI Director Christoper Wray looks pretty good (in my eyes.)
Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court? OK. Not a bad choice. But Gorsuch should still be waiting in line. It should have been Merrick Garland.
Whatever happens before 2020, I will be disappointed if Joe Biden is the next Democratic Party candidate for President. I think it's time for some younger "players" to take the field.
Would it be better if there were three viable political parties? A left-of-center party with people like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. A centrist party that would pull in the "moderates" from both the Republican and Democratic rosters (as they are today.) And a right-of-center party, with the rest of the bunch. I wonder if anyone else has had that thought?
There's more **** going on than any one person can keep on top of. Can someone here do me a "solid?" (As Dennis Rodman said to Kim Jong-un.) I keep seeing references here about this sale of uranium ore from a U.S. mining operation to the Russians, and that it involved John Podesta, and so (by implication) Hillary Clinton. What was the deal with that? Was there an actual illegality? Or is it just the idea that selling that much uranium ore to the Russians is "negatory" from a national security policy perspective?
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 07-12-2017).]
Well, isn't that ⬆️ illuminating? I asked if any of the big Podesta-Clinton talkers here would like to comment on this:
quote
There's more **** going on than any one person can keep on top of. Can someone here do me a "solid?" (As Dennis Rodman said to Kim Jong-un.) I keep seeing references here about this sale of uranium ore from a U.S. mining operation to the Russians, and that it involved John Podesta, and so (by implication) Hillary Clinton. What was the deal with that? Was there an actual illegality? Or is it just the idea that selling that much uranium ore to the Russians is "negatory" from a national security policy perspective?
I know y'all can talk the talk, but can any of you walk the walk?
Once the whole story and all the facts come out and not only the parts your lib media feed you.. there will be egg on many face.. It is fun watching liberals melt down their own without even knowing it's coming
[This message has been edited by Keel (edited 07-12-2017).]
Treason, arrested, impeached... I didn't use any of those words..
How about "dumb as a rock"..? For having named Mike Flynn as the White House National Security Advisor, and then putting up with him for 24 days? 24 days and nights, considering it's a 24/7 kind of job.
That episode (a pilot?) didn't inspire my confidence. I'll keep watching, though.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 07-13-2017).]
Wall Street Journal: Trump and family repeating mistakes that 'doomed' Clinton
The new editorial in the Wall Street Journal is for subscribers, but The Hill's Rebecca Savransky offers a glimpse:
President Trump and his family are repeating the same mistake that "doomed" 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, according to The Wall Street Journal's editorial board.
In an editorial published late Monday, the board said Trump should embrace "radical transparency," and get ahead of leaks.
"Even Donald Trump might agree that a major reason he won the 2016 election is because voters couldn’t abide Hillary Clinton’s legacy of scandal, deception and stonewalling," the editorial said.
"Yet on the story of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, Mr. Trump and his family are repeating the mistakes that doomed Mrs. Clinton."
<SNIP>
The editorial board said it expects Trump will ignore its advice. Trump "somehow seems to believe that his outsize personality and social-media following make him larger than the Presidency," it wrote.
"He’s wrong. He and his family seem oblivious to the brutal realities of Washington politics," the editorial said.
"Those realities will destroy Mr. Trump, his family and their business reputation unless they change their strategy toward the Russia probe. They don’t have much more time to do it."
Also hot off the press from Politico Magazine "Why Does Jared Kushner Still Have a Security Clearance?"
The last paragraph:
quote
Jared Kushner held suspicious meetings with Russians officials and operatives that he failed to disclose when he applied for a security clearance. If he weren’t the president’s son in law, he’d have been frogmarched out of the White House long ago. Why does he still have access to America’s biggest secrets?
Ned Price, a former CIA analyst, was a special assistant to President Obama for National Security affairs as well as spokesperson and senior director on the National Security Council. http://www.politico.com/mag...ity-clearance-215378
President Trump went public on Twitter this morning to say that his administration wants a free pass to do whatever it wants, and however it wants, without being hemmed in by any laws or established legal precedents, and without any hindrances from the other branches of government--the so-called "Constitutional" checks and balances. He said it was only fair, because Hillary Clinton and John Podesta "made out like bandits" during the eight years of President Obama. Mr Trump said he got this idea after someone tipped him to read some of the latest online discussions in the Off Topic section of Pennock's Fiero Forum.
Well, he could have...
Foreign contacts? We don't need to disclose no stinkin' foreign contacts.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 07-18-2017).]
Originally posted by rinselberg: Wall Street Journal: Trump and family repeating mistakes that 'doomed' Clinton
President Trump and his family are repeating the same mistake that "doomed" 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, according to The Wall Street Journal's editorial board.
In an editorial published late Monday, the board said Trump should embrace "radical transparency," and get ahead of leaks.
You are too much fun. Is the Wall Street Journal trying to protect your President ? Did Shillary really make a mistake ? Get ahead of leaks ? Pray do tell how.
I got home from work yesterday and hit up the Yahoo. There were page after page of white men doing illegal things. But, before all of this, "President Trump is not the idiot this week, OJ is."
So, you see Rinselberg, yoiur postings are just more fluff. Copy and paste garbage. Heck, even most of MEM's posts are just cut and paste garbage. Does anyone really think that we read this crap?
Originally posted by Tony Kania: I got home from work yesterday and hit up the Yahoo. There were page after page of white men doing illegal things. But, before all of this, "President Trump is not the idiot this week, OJ is."
So, you see Rinselberg, yoiur postings are just more fluff. Copy and paste garbage. Heck, even most of MEM's posts are just cut and paste garbage. Does anyone really think that we read this crap?
Trump confederate and "24 Days Before May" National Security Advisor Mike Flynn has started a new enterprise called "Resilient Patriot, LLC." The business model is of a private consulting firm, set up to advise investment funds and other private equity firms on investment strategies and specific investments.
His [Flynn's] son, Mike Flynn Jr., used the name Resilient Patriot on Twitter, but the work does not involve him, Joe Flynn said. Flynn Jr. circulated numerous messages on Twitter about "Pizzagate", a fake news story about a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant that supposedly played a key role in a child sex trafficking ring set up by Hillary Clinton. The Pizzagate conspiracy theory seems to have inspired a North Carolina man to fire a rifle inside the D.C.-area pizza restaurant in December.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 07-22-2017).]
Good to see Boondawg back with the tunes. Bring on some more political tunes from the 60's/70's. Doesn't seem like much changes thru time. Corruption in are government and financial institution's, war and protest and the fact the world is going to end Sept23 ( New date to be set after that date) I myself am enjoying all this President Trump hysteria from both party's and the dumb stream media. It takes time to drain a deep swamp.
Folks, My take is, rinse is going to gripe and whine until the next election when someone he likes finally gets in. Debating or arguing with him about any political topic only feeds his ego.
Ignore and pass by such threads and maybe, just maybe he'll realize he's not changing any minds. Discussing these political issues sure hasn't worked.
------------------ Ron
Isn't it strange that after a bombing, everyone blames the bomber, his upbringing, his environment, his culture, his mental state but … after a shooting, the problem is the gun.... Open your frigg'n minds, think about all the other tools that can be made into WMDs.
I sincerely hope that life is never discovered on another planet because, sure as hell Progressives and Socialists will want to send them money.
Good to see Boondawg back with the tunes. Bring on some more political tunes from the 60's/70's. Doesn't seem like much changes thru time. Corruption in are government and financial institution's, war and protest and the fact the world is going to end Sept23 ( New date to be set after that date) I myself am enjoying all this President Trump hysteria from both party's and the dumb stream media. It takes time to drain a deep swamp.
I came back here for a second time this evening for some more of my personal specialty. Gaslighting the Pennock's Off Topic forum with Russia-gate material. But what's this new reference to "Boondawg"..? Did Boondawg post something earlier today? Something I missed?
OK, now I see. Something that Boondawg posted a couple of months ago, back in July. Scrolling backwards from here.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 09-14-2017).]
