Coming attractions: and speaking of Judge Sullivan
I was up very late last night, thinking and reading. Or maybe reading and thinking.
When I get hold of a mystery, something that puzzles me and interests me, it’s hard for me to let it go. I often do that in my personal life, and I do that on this blog at times. Sometimes I have an “aha” moment. But sometimes the mystery remains despite hundreds of hours of research.
Yeah, it’s a bit OCD. But to me, it’s fascinating.
One of those puzzles has been Judge Emmet Sullivan. People dismiss what he’s done by saying “oh, he’s just politically biased” or “oh, just gone nuts” or “oh, he must be getting senile.” But none of those explanations ring true for me. As Flynn’s current lawyer Sidney Powell has said (in an interview I saw on TV but don’t have time to search for right now), he was the hero of her book about the miscarriage of justice in the Stevens case. Even Powell is at a loss to explain his behavior now, and doesn’t even try (for good reason; she doesn’t want to raise his ire further).
So last night I read and read and read articles about the judge’s actions in the Flynn case as well as the Stevens case. And I’m happy to say I’ve come up with a theory of what’s really going on. I thought I’d write the first installment today, but other events intervened, and I have a social engagement this evening (Zoom, of course). So I’ve decided to take my time and I hope to write it out in the next few days.
This post was just to whet your appetite.
Rather curiously, “Emmet” means “Truth” in (modern) Hebrew pronunciation—and FWIW is on the seal of Yale University, reflecting that school’s clerical roots and a time when knowledge of that language, along with Greek and Latin, was required for one to be considered a classicist….
Tease!
I, too, have been puzzled, since Sullivan was the judge who was so unhappy about prosecutorial misconduct in the Stevens case. I look forward to your explanation, Neo.
That’s just mean!
Pretty good Twitter thread here on the DC Circuit Court’s response to Sullivan: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1263588369918906373.html
Hopefully this would be conducted in a public venue? Legal Ignoramus here, so I wouldn’t know. But in the immortal words of another famous Sullivan, “We’ve got a Really Big Shew here tonight, folks, a Really Big Shew!
It’s all behind the apple.
News has been coming so fast, it seems there’s a bunch of revelations every time I wake up. I hope your theory is still relevant when you publish it.
Compromised and/or paid off is my guess but that’s based on no digging and little reading. Just feels right.
Looking forward to your angle Neo.
But none of those explanations ring true for me.
I’ve seen what happens to old people when they begin to lose their marbles. Rings true to me.
Remember Jeffrey Hart? He began behaving peculiarly in public fora around about age 74, then went completely silent at age 82. At the time of his death at age 89, his family admitted he’d been in a state of ‘advanced dementia’. It started with him largely repudiating everything he’d advocated about political life over a 40 year period, while pretending he was doing something else.
I think people have read far too much into Sullivan’s “actions” in the Ted Stevens case. The real work in getting justice in that particular instance was from a true whistleblowing FBI agent, and the work fully uncovering the corrupt prosecution was done at the DoJ level. All Sullivan did was follow the DoJ’s recommendation to throw out the jury verdict. As far as I know, nothing was ever done to the corrupt prosecutors other than demotions/firings and harsh words, only the latter of which were from Sullivan himself.
I think any effort to explain Sullivan’s actions in the Flynn case as anything other than raw partisan, Trump-hating bias is likely to be proven wrong in short order.
Dan Bongino’s interview with Sidney Powell (recorded today) will be on tomorrow’s show. Podcast and video formats.
“And I’m happy to say I’ve come up with a theory of what’s really going on. …This post was just to whet your appetite.”
Comments should include speculations on Neo’s conclusion so we can see if anyone is tracking her analysis.
Can somebody run up a video trailer?
Okay, with neo’s inspiration, I’m gonna go with a hunch, too. Since it is only a hunch I won’t claim to lay out a strict cause-effect argument, just an idea where the truth may lie.
I think it has something to do with Sullivan having animus toward Flynn’s original lawyers from Covington Law, and the original DOJ Prosecutors. I think he sees they were in cahoots, and doesn’t want them to skate away, with the DOJ dropping the case, and of course Covington having been replaced by Sidney Powell.
He sees that Powell, correctly enough, doesn’t want to complicate things to the possible detriment of her client, and DOJ doesn’t want to admit that it’s people were participating in thuggery and just wants to wash its hands of it all. His answer is to bring in somebody who doesn’t have anything to lose, the amicus, to drive the roaches out into the light and help stomp on them.
Powell’s public criticism, and us in the conservative ranks’ quick presumption (including mine so far) that he is an Obama flunky, have not made him inclined to be forthcoming about what he is up to, assuming there was a way he could be. The amicus is his alter-ego here that can say and do what Sullivan thinks is right, but it is not against Flynn’s interest as we have assumed!
‘Zat crazy enough?! Call it the “Animus by Amicus” theory!
Just for that may the bird of paradise…
RT
Here you are!
https://www.last.fm/music/Little+Jimmy+Dickens/_/May+The+Bird+Of+Paradise+Fly+Up+Your+Nose
Tough crowd…
My theory is that Sullivan hates that Flynn did NOT change his plea earlier, when the judge was inviting him to. He knows that the prosecutors sucked; the defendant’s first lawyers sucked; but also that Flynn started to suck when Sullivan suggested / asked for a plea change, but Flynn refused. (A few months ago? a year? Soon after Powell took over…)
Ray Van’s idea of exposing the cockroaches is also interesting, and not mutually exclusive with anger at Flynn for not changing his plea sooner.
Plus: spotlight.
Occam’s razor. Check his Wiki page. He’s essentially spent his entire life in Washington, DC and has already been overruled once in a case involving President Trump. Throw in the fact he’s 72 and, while I’m sure Neo will come up with something much more interesting, what I come up with is that he literally still believes Trump colluded with Russia and sees Flynn “getting away with it” as the final step toward sweeping the whole scandal under the rug.
Life isn’t that complicated. Look at Rachel Maddow. Or check out the Nation columnist who just publicly stated she would vote for Biden even if he “boiled babies and ate them.” https://www.mediaite.com/politics/journalist-says-she-would-vote-biden-even-if-he-boiled-babies-and-ate-them-taking-back-white-house-is-that-important/
These people ARE deranged. They’ve convinced themselves that Trump is Hitler/Anti-Christ/Thanos because that’s the only rationale that allows them to maintain their self-image of intelligence and moral excellence.
Mike
Whatever good he did in the Stevens case was only after the damage was permanently done.
Didn’t take much courage at that point
avi
I have friends who have followed orangemanbad down some strange alleys. Collusion obstruction is going to go the way Fox has been rolling it for three years, only worse. Trying to subvert peaceful transition of power is Obama’s legacy, and he wasn’t even going to be in office. It was a gang effort and…it’s all good with my friends.
The Uke no quid no quo gave us an insight into the Biden business model. No problem….Trump has money, too.
As somebody said, the only scientific possible treatment for the Kung Flu which needs peer-revied, double-blind studies of thousands is the one Trump thought might work.
Talked to one of them about reopening not starting infection spikes. What about the makeshift morgues?
It’s hard to imagine any other cause so immediately self-impeaching, obviously so, whose proponents keep on keeping on.
And it’s not like the alternative was some combination of Gandhi, Rev. King, and George Washington.
It followed.. you can keep your doctor. Premiums will drop by $2500. It was a video. We have to pass the bill to see what’s in it.
No. Orangeman was infinitely worse.
I truly don’t get it.
Whetting appetites is not an eyedropper of water given to a person who just traversed a desert…
“Thanks” for the eggcorn…
Tom Grey:
You’re getting warm…
0m, I remember that song on the radio around 1965-66 (Nov. 65 according to my trusty Billboard guide). OT briefly from all this legal stuff: I have a very un-country background, urban, New England, Jewish. But later on when I started to appreciate country music I realized a lot of “pop” and “rock” hits from the 50s and 60s were really country crossover if not outright country – Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, Johnny Horton, Bill Anderson, Stonewall Jackson. Elvis Presley’s core genre was rockabilly along with Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins. And don’t forget the great Everly Brothers, a significant influence on the Beatles.
What MBunge said on 5.21.20 8:39.
(Occam’s one smart dude. Been around the block.)
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/18/judge-tells-michael-flynn-you-sold-your-country-out-at-hearing.html
1. An outburst—a rant!—like Sullivan’s, calling Flynn a traitor—“You sold your country out”, etc.—had to come from somewhere. (Judges are really, really not supposed to do that or “to go there”…well, maybe “hanging judges” can rationalize it….). And then his feeling compelled to apologize for it—a very public chastening?—could only have compounded the animosity.
2. Hard—impossible—to reconcile a judge going back on his convictions so flagrantly (how many times did he declare “absolutely no amicus curiae briefs, NOT FOR THIS CASE, NOT IN MY COURT”? 20 times? 25 times?) and then after deciding to reverse direction 180 degrees, deciding to call—of all people—a judge with a history of animus towards the defendant (and Trump) as a “friend of the court” who would have something constructive to offer and who could “assist” in arriving at a just conclusion.
(Shorter version: Why such a flagrant switch now? And why Gleeson?)
E.g.:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markchenoweth/2020/05/14/judge-sullivan-disregards-two-controlling-precedents-by-appointing-amicus-in-flynn-case/#186bce116f0a
Possible Answer: Control was taken away from him “IN MY COURT” allowing a defendant who not only “SOLD OUT HIS COUNTRY” but who LIED about it “IN MY COURT” to get off “scot free”. “AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN. NOT IN MY COURT.” Nossir. You are not going to make a fool of me. NOT IN MY COURT.
(All this, without even getting into the political angle, i.e., “the long reach of the Outlaw”…of the previous administration).
Ray spins a good yarn, and I might even be tempted by it, except for Sullivan’s choice of amicus — Gleeson is not showing any signs of being the kind of guy who wants the perfidy of the (Democrat partisan) prosecutors to be revealed.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/may/16/flynn-adversarys-law-firm-backs-democrats-fec-reco/
It seems more likely that Sullivan is hoping that he can declare Flynn guilty of this novel charge without actually acknowledging the malfeasance that led him to plead guilty in the first place, and sentence him under the original pleading.
Is Tom Grey right? Did Sullivan feel dissed that Flynn didn’t take him up on the December 2018 offer to withdraw his plea?
I went here to refresh my memory; that encounter occurred before Powell took over in June 2019.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/12/18/michael-flynn-sentencing/
Well, wounded pride is not a good look for an esteemed judge, but I suppose it’s possible.
BTW, Flynn gave a detailed explanation of why he rejected the offer, which boils down to “my lawyers advised me to not get the Special Counsel’s Office on my back again” — and claims both he and the lawyers were blind-sided by Sullivan’s offer, and then the renewing of the plea under oath.
See his statement where he requested, via his new lawyer Powell, to withdraw that plea.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/01/29/flynn-case-update-flynn-files-motion-to-dismiss-declaration-of-plea-reversal-doj-files-revised-sentence-recommendation-for-probation-only/comment-page-2/#comment-7795576
It’s pretty obvious that the Covington lawyers were sweating bullets about what would be revealed in a trial about their conflict of interest in re the FARA accusations, which is why they persuaded Flynn to renew his plea before Sullivan.
However, if Sullivan had Flynn’s good at heart when he made the offer, that was obviously no longer the case later.
“Whatever good he did in the Stevens case was only after the damage was permanently done.” – avi
Without doing anywhere near the research Neo has done (bows & curtsies are in order), this paragraph in Sullivan’s wiki article jumped out at me, in re avi’s point:
(BTW, it seems to me that “setting aside a conviction” is equivalent to the DOJ dropping the case after a plea deal, since “a plea is the same as a conviction,” as has been argued earlier in the discussion by some people.)
Despite all the glowing praise for Sullivan in the Stevens case, he seems to have been forced by other actors to actually do the right thing, rather than pursuing justice on his own. That he afterwards insisted that prosecutors present any Brady material to the court and defendant is commendatory, but notice how resistant he has been to actually having Powell force it out of the pre-Barr DOJ.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/12/16/judge-sullivan-denies-flynn-motion-for-brady-material-schedules-sentencing-for-january-28th/
Looking back at other events, particularly the inability of the judge to force the DOJ to produce exculpatory evidence requested early on by Powell, especially the original 302 (which may not even exist now), I don’t think Sullivan realized at the time he took over the case the magnitude of the can of worms that would be opened if Flynn had withdrawn his plea then and gone to trial.
Now, the slithery creatures are inescapable.
So, I lean toward MBunge’s idea, with Barry’s emendations.
“what I come up with is that he literally still believes Trump colluded with Russia and sees Flynn “getting away with it” as the final step toward sweeping the whole scandal under the rug.” – MBunge
This is tangential to the Sullivan motivations, but Sundance explains why he thinks Barr offered to squash the case completely, rather than just asking the judge to go back to the original “no jail time or even probation” offer from the DOJ.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/02/15/the-sentencing-of-michael-flynn-represents-a-very-big-problem-for-ag-bill-barr/comment-page-10/#comment-7858928
That Barr chose Option B in May did not make Sullivan a happy camper, so I wonder if he really appreciates the arguments Sundance put forth.
Or else my observation above may be operable: “It seems more likely that Sullivan is hoping that he can declare Flynn guilty of this novel charge without actually acknowledging the malfeasance that led him to plead guilty in the first place, and sentence him under the original pleading.”
Kind of like the way Scooter Libby was found guilty of lying about doing something that was itself not ever addressed by the court.
AF, an excellent post, review and summation. (And thanks for refreshing memories.)
Several things jump out, to me at least.
Sullivan’s quote of:
‘ Sullivan said: “I cannot recall any incident in which the court has accepted a plea of guilty from someone who maintained he was not guilty and I don’t intend to start today.” ‘
…demonstrates Sullivan’s total incomprehension of Flynn’s decision; and shows a judge wondering why Flynn was screwing around. Playing with him. Mocking(?) him. And the court.
So that Sullivan’s angry response is, or should be, perfectly understandable.
Which might well mean that Sullivan responded less with “wounded pride” than with an understandable (and defensible) sense of exasperation, consternation and utter confusion at this totally inexplicable, eyebrow-raising decision of Flynn’s—to insist on his innocence while ALSO claiming, adamantly that he (Flynn) was NOT going to change his plea from “Guilty” to “Not Guilty”, EVEN THOUGH SULLIVAN WAS GIVING HIM THE CHANCE to do so.
But Sullivan’s incomprehension leading to anger(?) would most likely have been because of what Sullivan DID NOT KNOW at the time (but which Flynn and his first batch of defense lawyers did): the nature of Flynn’s coerced plea bargain.
Which, HAD Sullivan known about it, would have—should have—presumably, converted the totally nonsensical to perfectly comprehensible.
IOW, what Sullivan (and almost no one except for a select few) did NOT KNOW at the time was that Flynn’s guilty plea was COERCED—-with Stasi-like “efficiency” and in all its NKVD-style glory—by that talented Mueller-Weissmann tag team of thugs who already had Flynn’s word (coerced as part of what can only be an “exemplary” case of criminal plea bargaining) that Flynn would plead “Guilty” in return for their agreement NOT TO proceed with their threatened prosecution/persecution/railroading of Flynn’s son, an agreement that Flynn believed he HAD to honor (whether because he is an honorable person or, possibly more likely, because he understood that his son was in fact ALWAYS going to be in potential danger if Flynn failed to live up to his part of the “DEVIL’S BARGAIN”)….
(It was only after Flynn changed lawyers—and his new lawyer, Sidney Powell, was able to convince him that his son would no longer be in danger even if he changed his plea to Guilty—that Flynn actually—likely—decided it was safe to change his plea.)
Except that Sullivan knows all this now. And IT SEEMS TO MAKE NO DIFFERENCE.
In fact, he’s doubling and tripling down, which brings to mind that Master of all doubling and tripling downers, and which is causing all kinds of confoundment and incredulous responses by constitutional experts, including SC judges, who—-in spite of the claims of certain individuals—would appear to certainly know whereof they speak.
Unfortunately I have to go more with Aesop/Bunge/Barry than neo/Tom/Ray. I think Sullivan sometimes makes decisions to look fair but in the end he makes sure he goes along with the plan, whether from conviction or fear or greed. Aesop’s cite significantly diminishes any cred Sullivan might get from the Stevens case, all the righteous stuff happened after Stevens was safely out of the Senate and unable to vote against Obamacare which would have failed were he still a member. Sullivan got the “Bat signal” from Obama as commenter Jeanne B. called it.
I keep “missing” your latest comments. (I’m always one behind.)
Regarding your CTH-quoting post, it seems to me perfectly reasonable that, in fact, Obama and his confederates hatched their obscene scheme with the view of successfully leveraging the entire country; that is, defending themselves from the consequences of having their nefarious, if devilishly ingenious, plan found out, hinges on the fact that they are holding the entire country hostage.
In short, if Barr decides to prosecute them for their extraordinary and deep-seated criminality, he will be pushing the institutions of government, some of which have been thoroughly corrupted and tainted by the Obama administration, over the edge of the precipice.
Yes, holding a gun at the country’s head as a way of defending himself is purely evil but supremely ingenious. (And some people would claim that Obama isn’t all that “intelligent”….)
File under: Nice country you got there. You gonna destroy it by insisting on prosecuting us? Sure, go ahead. Make OUR day.
Should add that if such outrageous speculation on my part is accurate, then the only way to proceed would be for Barr and his team to, somehow, conclude that he could successfully prosecute the malefactors WITHOUT causing “collateral damage” to the country at large.
IOW, calling Obama’s (et al.’s) bluff.
Wondering if they can thread that needle. Hope so….
On the other hand, one might conjecture that Sullivan, knowing deep down (with his judge’s acumen, experience and insight) that Obama and his minions will stop at ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to achieve their goals has concluded that ONLY HE, Sullivan, can stop the impending catastrophe and that to do so realizes that Michael Flynn MUST be sacrificed for the greater good. (Something those intelligent fools like Barr, Powell and Flynn himself, along with the DC Court haven’t yet understood and likely never will).
IOW, ONLY HE, Emmett Sullivan, can—heroically—save the country from destruction.
That that is his destiny. (And one can neither really choose nor run away from one’s destiny….)
Thus if someone has to be sacrificed for the greater good, well a difficult decision but…so be it. (Because he thoroughly understands that resistance to Clinton, Obama and the Democratic Party machine is…futile.)
Hence his decision, which appears to be inexplicable—and INEXCUSABLE—to those who are not as aware of what’s really at stake as is he.
Following this line of speculation (or fantasy), one may begin to understand Hillary Clinton’s sincere desire (along with Obama et al, the Democratic Party machine and the MSCM) to help their country survive—to save their country from them having to destroy it—by deep sixing the Trump presidency, and have been doing their darnedest, threatening, cajoling, posing and prevaricating in their heroic (there is not other possible word in this context) efforts—for the the greater good—to rid the country of Trump and Trumpism and everything and everyone connected to that man.
Yes, the ultimate patriots trying to do their best and stymied and frustrated at every turn by Trump and his deplorable supporters.
(And certainly, following this train of thought, one could argue that China’s government solemnly decided, with its deep feelings of responsibility for people around the globe, that ONLY IT could—unselfishly—improve the lives of billions of people on this earth by enabling the release of a deadly virus thus encouraging and precipitating the growth of herd immunity so as to protect personkind against this and other debilitating diseases. Which no doubt is why China feels terribly and unjustifiably wronged by the concerted attack against her by a gang of ungrateful opportunists led by Trump and his administration, and its supporters.)
He’s essentially spent his entire life in Washington, DC and has already been overruled once in a case involving President Trump.
As a federal judge he’s part of ‘political Washington’, and has been for 30+ years. His time as an ordinary local resident is not salient in this regard.
SEE: Jesus Christ, Superstar
ALSO SEE: The Dreyfus Affair
Okay, with neo’s inspiration, I’m gonna go with a hunch, too.
Too clever by half, and, w/o evidence.
They’ve convinced themselves that Trump is Hitler/Anti-Christ/Thanos because that’s the only rationale that allows them to maintain their self-image of intelligence and moral excellence.
Bingo. They don’t react to anything Trump does and react only to potted conceptions of what he says. The Democratic Party has decayed into a collecting pool of head cases and grifters. They really have no perspective on policy more elevated than to hurt social enemies in various ways.
re: “As Flynn’s current lawyer Sidney Powell has said (in an interview I saw on TV but don’t have time to search for right now), [Judge Sullivan] was the hero of her book about the miscarriage of justice in the Stevens case.”
I don’t know about TV interviews, but Sidney Powell said that in her Open Memorandum to Barack Obama dated 5/13/2020: “Judge Sullivan is the judicial hero of Licensed to Lie.” See paragraph “Fourth” here:
https://sidneypowell.com/media/open-memorandum-to-barack-obama/
Sul, like most Deep State agents or those associated with the Dark, have their orders. They do not necessarily know why those orders exist, but they do know that they Must Obey. Or Else.
Ray Van Dune
That s a very optimistic assessment. However if the slaves of America had such an optimistic system in place, one would not need Trum or enemies of the DS to burn it all down first.
Why? Why?
Why did Hitler exterminate 12 million?
Why did Stalin / Mao / Pol Pot, exterminate millions?
Why did a powerfully built male nursing home worker repeatedly pummel an elderly nursing home patient AND video the entire affair AND post the video on the web for all to see?
(I just watched it on https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2020/05/21/nursing-home-abuser-arrested-after-posting-viral-video-of-horrific-crime-n416122)
Because hate is a powerful emotion that causes people to literally do anything that they believe will help diminish /relieve themselves of their hate. And by anything, I mean absolutely anything.
This is why the media and the democrats have been on a 24/7/365 effort to eliminate Trump.
This is why Sullivan is doing what he is doing; esp. considering that he has nothing to lose (other than an upper court over turning his decision – well, big F’n deal ),
This is why the DOJ and other traitors attempted and still are attempting to eliminate Trump.
Sometimes the explanation for an action is the most obvious.
Judge Sullivan has tipped his hand a number of times during the course of the trial with emotional displays; The quoting, almost verbatim, of Rachel Maddow’s unhinged tirade; The accusation of Flynn as a traitor; and this, the charge of perjury rather than a simple dismissal. All of these represent an unseemly display of bias from the bench, but also of poorly supported material – jarring, coming from such a highly credentialed judge. Trump Derangement Syndrome?
And now Judge Sullivan has bluffed himself into a corner, and the Circuit Court has raised and called. Not only must he lay his cards down, he has to explain his bets. And since this is a confrontation of the judicial system institution they are contesting, surely he must have known the stakes from their side; The judicial has been reshaped over the past 3 years. Now he must be made to ‘Respect Muh Authoritah’. Surely he would have known this humiliation was a potential outcome, having selected such a partisan amicus provider, Judge Gleeson.
I still think this has more to do with the protection of the Sacred Legacy of Obama than it does with the Persecution of Trump. For these noteworthy people to be willing to fall on a sword for a cause that has lost all of its political value – doesn’t make sense. It’s too desperate, too unlikely. They are protecting something that is still hidden. Too many unknowns, not enough equations.
Thanks for an excellent post.
A few comments;
“Not only must he lay his cards down, he has to explain his bets…”
True, but might this not mean that he believes he has an unbeatable “card” and that he’s prepared to play it, even if it causes irreparable harm to a system he has sworn to uphold? (In other words, form his point of view, might there not be a higher purpose? A higher truth?)
“…more to do with the protection of the Sacred Legacy of Obama than it does with the Persecution of Trump…”
But these are likely to be viewed as precisely one and the same thing by those “on the barricades” doing the protecting, whether they be politicians, members—even heads—of Federal agencies, journalists, academicians, etc.
Whether the protectors and the entire psychotic cabal is delusional is another, if related, question; but Trump is, for them, The Enemy (i.e,. there are no doubts—no Pogo—for these guys….)
“…willing to fall on a sword for a cause that has lost all of its political value…”
Maybe one would like to believe so, but once again, that’s precisely the point: in their perverse, paranoid worldview, where power is everything and everything therefore must be based on “power”, their “noble” cause is defined as a Manichean struggle between Good and Evil, between Light and Darkness, between the glorious progressive future and the egregious nationalist/conservative/traditional past.
Between Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
They and their Believers (for their crusade is replete with cult-like irrationality, extreme chauvinism, perverted morality and remarkable absence of any sense of either empathy or conscience) have made it so. And we can see the consequences.
“As a federal judge he’s part of ‘political Washington’, and has been for 30+ years. His time as an ordinary local resident is not salient in this regard.“
That’s like saying if you grow up in Alabama, you’re as likely to be a fan of Boise State college football as the Crimson Tide.
Mike
Oops. Mistake in my post of 2:08:
“…even if he changed his plea to Guilty…”
should be
“…even if he changed his plea to NOT Guilty…”
Profiles in perversion:
https://www.city-journal.org/american-universities-prize-ideology-over-ideas
H/T Powerline blog
…in which is discussed “the higher irrationalism”.
One key graf:
‘ “The Lost History of Western Civilization” was published by The National Association of Scholars, a center-right organization in California led for many years by John Ellis, an English professor at UC Santa Cruz. In 1990, Ellis’s book “Against Deconstruction” offered a pathbreaking dissection of what can be described as the higher irrationalism. His new book, “The Breakdown of Higher Education”, is broader in scope than Kurtz’s, but it, too, describes the descent of pedagogy into indoctrination and the proliferation of fads, fashions, and hoaxes that have turned academia into a self-parody.’
I think it is no coincidence that Sullivan took his “can’t dismiss” action the same day Obama’s “private” conversation with his alumni was “leaked.”
Did Sullivan side with Obama when he heard the substance of the telephone call? My guess is that he did, at least in part.
Ockham’s razor suggests the simplest explanation: Donald Trump.
F said:
“I think it is no coincidence that Sullivan took his “can’t dismiss” action the same day Obama’s “private” conversation with his alumni was “leaked.”
I no longer believe in coincidences. My question now, after reading further into the DC Circuit from Neo’s link in the comments: Did the DC Circuit hear Obama’s comments? I’m no longer as sanguine about the Writ of Mandamus as I was.
No one would be happier than I to be proven wrong about this.
When an individual is acting in an unexpected or out-of-character manner, one explanation is that they are being coerced. I am not saying that this the case, but the possibility should not be discounted that the rogue elements in the IC have some sort of leverage over the judge, such as incriminating photos or other material he doesn’t want made public. Or, they could have even gone so far as to make direct threats to him or his family.
We do know that these folks play rough. And there is a LOT at stake for them.
Democrats being Democrats….
(It’s simply impossible to claim, “They’ve finally reached bottom. They can’t get any lower than this.”….)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-judge-flynn-case
Key graf:
‘ “Where you see [D.C. Circuit Court Judge] Neomi Rao, you can expect a lot of Trumpy dirt to follow,” Whitehouse said. “She’s a cartoon of a fake judge. Watch this space.” ‘
J. Turley, the anti-Trump but fair liberal is a key voice to listen to now. Sullivan has 10 days to explain himself to the DC circuit:
https://jonathanturley.org/2020/05/22/a-date-with-destiny-d-c-circuit-gives-sullivan-10-days-to-defend-his-flynn-orders/
Here’s what I said there:
Great explanation – but I was also hoping for speculation on what Sullivan’s “steelman” argument is likely to be?
As an aside, I’m wondering if a Rep majority Congress couldn’t use this case to impeach Sullivan next year.
As long as gov’t agents, FBI directors, IRS leaders, judges, can use and abuse their power to hurt innocent folk, as long as the abuse occurs without punishment, it will continue. All democracies need better ways to punish the wrong-doing and rule-breaking of gov’t bureaucrats and other gov’t agents.
I don’t care.
(Not to downplay your analysis, which I’m sure will be brilliant.)
This asshole is grossly and openly abusing his vast powers to toy with a man’s life and livelihood. He’s a bully, a coward, a hypocrite, and has abandoned his oath.
The why of it just doesn’t interest me.
There will be no repercussions for this greedy, needy hog at the trough.
So this will reverberate in other cases. Because now it’s been done.
He’ll probably get an award from the other hogs. And a fat pension.
I don’t care to hear any justifications or anything that even vaguely sounds like a justification.
The Dan Bongino interview with Sidney Powell podcast is now available:
https://soundcloud.com/dan-bongino/interview-with-general-flynns-lawyer-sidney-powell
That’s like saying if you grow up in Alabama, you’re as likely to be a fan of Boise State college football as the Crimson Tide.
No, it isn’t. There are masses of people who live and work in the DC commuter belt who have nothing to do with political Washington and are not federal employees, either. About 20% of the local workforce is on the federal payroll. You see the same sort of people there that you see in any city with one qualification: there is very little manufacturing in and around Washington. Among federal employees, there are many people in uniform and, among the civilians, a lot of ordinary shlubs who do the same sort of work they might do for a private employer or for a local government. People who write books like this
https://www.amazon.com/This-Town-Parties-Funeral-Plus-Americas/dp/0399170685
aren’t writing about Washington. They’re writing about their own social circles (and, one might wager, in a very self-aggrandizing way).
SMarter. Explanation is not justification.
Can’t beat autographed. MARTEL. Sorry.
Explanations have a way of turning into justifications.
Example: “We were concerned he was a Russian agent.”
Monty Python Communist Quiz sketch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ9myHhpS9s
“About 20% of the local workforce is on the federal payroll.”
Dude, you pick the DUMBEST hills to die on. As of April 30, 2020, voter registration in Washington, DC was nearly 76% Democratic to nearly 6% Republican.
https://www.dcboe.org/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=4961a99d-c8f2-4988-b3c8-4044b6067afa
SIX PERCENT VS. 76 PERCENT. Combine that with 20% having the same employer and you’ve got the world’s biggest one-horse town.
Neo has detailed her own experiences with friends and acquaintances who’ve gone round the bend with Trump hatred. That’s the world Judge Sullivan lives in and, yes, the fact that he’s spent his whole life there matters because he it means he may not have ANYONE…not an old classmate, not an old army buddy, not a former boss or co-worker…he may not have ANYONE in his life who doesn’t think OrangeManBad is the answer to every question.
Mike
Donald Rumsfeld used to caution people not to attribute to conspiracy that which can be explained by incompetence. Back when I was practicing law, my firm had a case before Sullivan. He was a strange combination of arrogant, willful, lazy, and stupid. He also appears to be an attention whore.
He’s a political hack who incompetently went a step too far. The Democrats would love to have the Flynn affair drag on until the fall and force Trump to pardon him to avoid prison. In such a case, Sullivan would have denied the motion in October and remanded Flynn to custody to force Trump’s hand in the final stages of the election.
However, Sullivan just can’t help himself and he decided to make himself the center of attention by appointing amici and making a circus out of the motion to dismiss. Oops, the DC Circuit’s hand has been forced and things won’t end well for Sullivan.
CaptDMO on May 22, 2020 at 7:46 am said:
SEE: Jesus Christ, Superstar
Give this person a kewpie doll!!!
its why i posted “Could we start again please”
🙂
Dude, you pick the DUMBEST hills to die on. As of April 30, 2020, voter registration in Washington, DC was nearly 76% Democratic to nearly 6% Republican.
I’m not dying on any hills. I’m disputing a notion of yours, which is that living in Washington per se is all that important.
About 85% of those living in the dense settlement around Washington are in the suburban jurisdictions, so I don’t know why you’re limiting your discussion to DC.
The urban glob around Washington has two features: it’s large enough to be called a top-tier city and it has a proportionately large black population (27%, v. the 18% which would be about normal in an ordinary metropolis). If you look at the 17 largest urban settlements in this country, Republicans are competitive in about three of them, and nearly all their strength is in the surburban jurisdictions. Greater Washington’s hardly different in this respect. Compare with Seattle. In the three counties which make up greater Seattle, Hellary won about 68% of the sum of ballots cast for her and Trump. Around Washington, you have the District, seven counties, and five stand-alone municipalities. Hellary won 78% of the two party vote. The thing is, the black population around Seattle is 5.5% of the total, whereas it’s 27% around Washington. Presuming their shares of the black vote are similar in both loci, their share of the non-black vote would be about 67% around Seattle and 73% around Washington.
He was a strange combination of arrogant, willful, lazy, and stupid.
His background suggests he’s a rank-and-file lawyer. I don’t think that’s typical on the federal bench. More a municipal judge.
https://www.cov.com/en/professionals/k/robert-kelner
https://www.cov.com/en/professionals/a/stephen-anthony
While we’re at it, these are the high-priced duffers who blew his case the first time.
“I’m disputing a notion of yours, which is that living in Washington per se is all that important.”
That’s what makes it so very, very, very dumb. I mean, for pity’s sake, vomiting up a bunch of data doesn’t make you look smart in this situation. It makes you look like you’re somewhere on the Autism spectrum.
What is your actual argument here? That someone who is born and spends their entire life Washington, DC, is exactly the same as someone who is born and spends their entire life in Tyler, Texas? That where you live and with whom you spend your entire life associating have NO EFFECT on you as a person? That is the truly stupid argument you seem to be making. If it’s not, try to more concise.
Responding to the fact that Washington, DC, registered voters are nearly 76 percent Democratic to nearly 6 percent Republican by blathering on about Seattle and “urban settlements” is the opposite of concise.
Mike
That’s what makes it so very, very, very dumb.
I can explain something to you. I cannot comprehend it for you.
If there is no there there, even if the no is a number (statistic), there is nothing to explain. Statistics on WA state and the District of Columbia (Washington DC) are just numbers you chose to associate.
You can say that the DC suburbs in northern VA dominate the politics in the rest of the state or that the Puget Sound voters dominate WA politics but that’s about it.
No pass on this one Art. An example of the misuse of statistics.
Art D: “that living in Washington per se is all that important.”
I believe that where you went to school (college!), and where you live, are quite important. The polarization rot of current America, which I label as Democrat Derangement Syndrome, starts in college and continues later in life.
The old idea of college ‘diversity’ is to get multiple reasoned opinions. But now in most colleges they object to and suppress Republican ideas – so everybody mouths the PC ideas of the time. So the grads claim to be open minded in their (irrational) hatred of Bush, Palin, Trump, Kavanaugh, Trump, Flynn, Trump, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Ivanka (Trump), Rand Paul, and every Rep., especially Trump. DJ Trump is the most big-spending, gay friendly, black friendly Republican since WW II. Yet Dems hate him, especially. Maybe because he’s so friendly & big-spending, so their usual anti-Rep rhetoric is rationally weak?
Well, living in DC is a huge bubble. All the “right people” hate Trump. “Trump is literally Hitler”. This terrible and stupid idea dominates most of the political discourse among the college educated, and among blacks. (See Biden’s stupid claim that those who support Trump over him “ain’t black”.) It’s probably actually stronger among the college educated, where many blacks are merely habitual Democrats now.
Art D: “If you look at the 17 largest urban settlements in this country, Republicans are competitive in about three of them, and nearly all their strength is in the surburban jurisdictions.” If your point is that DC is not so different from NYC or Seattle – full of TrumpHating Dems (college grads and otherwise), you should be more clear about that.
If your claim is that there are plenty of Rep voices even in the deepest blue TrumpHating places, then I think you’re wrong. Especially in DC, where “good hearted” people come to DC in order to idealistically make the gov’t work for the “good of the people”, which requires that the bureaucracy where they work gets more money and resources in order to accomplish their Great Mission which they’ve been working so hard on, for so long, and it’s only been failing because of a lack of resources and that damn
NixonTrump standing in their way from succeeding is solving the Big Problem that they know more resources for their bureaucracy would allow them to succeed, and their failure proves that Trump is EVIL for opposing their Great Mission, which is so Good, for so many people, if only they would get enough gov’t cash to finally be able to do their jobs and solve that Big Problem…(repeat ad nauseum, preferably in a single Faulkner like never ending paragraph of nuanced repetition.)
DC is quite a bit different from other cities, in being even more pro-Fed gov’t to solve all problems.
.
(I came here, again, to mention a fear that the news will be faster than Neo’s speculative explanation, but DC vs Seattle is more important.)
Why? Why?
Why did Hitler exterminate 12 million?
Why did Stalin / Mao / Pol Pot, exterminate millions?
Why did a powerfully built male nursing home worker repeatedly pummel an elderly nursing home patient AND video the entire affair AND post the video on the web for all to see?
The nursing home ‘worker’ has prior mental issues… but was cheap and willing to work, and so they did not look to the prior history… (his father is ashamed)
as for the others… fulfilling the predictions of the prophet of their religion they ALL did the same thing… go after ‘hidebound’ culture in their midst… for germans it was jews, for mao it was another group, etc… read the magyar struggle… but i have found that no one really wants to know why, they dont like the actual answer, they want an answer they want… and that is not satisfying (at least not to people who dont practice taoisms concepts).. so they will keep answering and asking the same question endlessly and completely ignore the unsatisfying but actually true answer… “engels told them to do it” magyar struggle ==> my struggle ==> world war to remove hidebound cultures to move into the future… china hating the Uighurs is the same… its also no different with the people of islam following their prophet and the twelvers believing they can induce him to appear if they can create the conditions (and not just make a double set of bad)… they are all fulfilling the words of their prophets of their “religions”
The polarization rot of current America, which I label as Democrat Derangement Syndrome, starts in college and continues later in life.
Starts in kindergarten by a leftist feminist teacher who prevents the boys from playing with guns and trucks and prevents the girls from dolls… etc
AesopFan, Barry Meislin–
You say that like it’s a bad thing…