Fogbow

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:13 pm You know that event is worth $500 just by the quality of the graphic design.

Flynn's brother is still active in the service, isn't he?

Jan Wolfe@JanNWolfe
·23h
The plaintiffs here are John "Jack" Flynn (one of Michael Flynn's brothers), and Leslie Flynn (Michael Flynn's sister-in-law).

Gen. Charles Flynn, the brother of Michael Flynn who is a U.S. army commander, is *not* involved in this case.

A conspiracy and religion-fueled political conference in downtown Salt Lake City drew about 1,000 attendees on Friday to the Salt Palace Convention Center. People there heard from some of the leading far-right political figures, including retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.

The Western Conservative Action Network, or WeCANact event, was billed as a place to learn to fight “against the socialist, communist, and Marxist ideologies” in government, schools and the media. The event did focus on that promise, but also offered up a large helping of misinformation about COVID-19, vaccines and the 2020 election. And, to top off the fringe political buffet, there were lots of references to the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Organizers initially hoped to sell 10,000 tickets or more to the two-day event in Salt Lake City. They fell far short, with fewer than 1,000 in attendance on Friday.

The headline speaker was former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired just a few weeks after being appointed to the position by former President Donald Trump. Flynn was a central figure in the postelection efforts to overturn the 2020 vote, suggesting that Trump impose martial law in several states to force a revote. More recently Flynn suggested a coup should take place in the U.S.

The falsehoods and half-truths flew fast and furious Friday.

The opening prayer asked for God’s protection from a “satanic cabal.” A central belief of QAnon is the world is run by a global child trafficking, Satan worshipping cabal. The opening prayer also referred to attendees as part of “the great awakening,” which is an overt reference to a QAnon belief that mass arrests of government officials are coming.

Leigh Dundas, who cheered on the crowd who attacked Congress during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, warned the crowd that a plot launched by former Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev to replace the U.S. government with a communist dictatorship was coming to fruition. “This is how a communist totalitarian takeover starts. They make divorce easy. They want to normalize deviant sexual practices. They want to get rid of obscenity laws and frame anyone who opposes that as against free speech. They want to get rid of prayer in schools,” Dundas warned.

Utah Reps. Steve Christiansen, R-West Jordan, and Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, are pushing for a similar audit of the 2020 election results in Utah. Both men are set to speak at the conference on Saturday.

Calls to audit Utah’s 2020 election fall flat as legislative committee takes no action
Two Utah Republican lawmakers attempted to use their political offices to obtain personal information for thousands of Utah voters, including those who asked to keep their information private.
By Bryan Schott | Oct. 20, 2021, 11:26 p.m.| Updated: Oct. 21, 2021, 5:03 p.m.
Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism. [IDK -- could see it]

A much-hyped hearing on “election integrity” mostly fizzled out on Wednesday afternoon, as Utahns who want lawmakers to approve an audit of the 2020 election in Utah packed a hearing room in the Utah State Capitol, but walked away wanting.

Any hopes of an audit springing from the hearing were dashed early as Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Layton, the House chair of the committee, threw cold water on the idea.

“We cannot call for an audit. We’re here to discuss safe and secure elections and legislative ideas for that,” Lisonbee said.

orlylicious wrote: ↑Sat Oct 23, 2021 10:59 pm Was Foggy at this Conference? Is he still working on the BOTG report?

Michael Flynn tonight: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.”

tek wrote: ↑Sun Nov 14, 2021 5:52 pm seriously, none of these assholes understand where "one nation, under God" came from.

I can't stand it.

Atticus Finch wrote: ↑Sun Nov 14, 2021 2:05 pm A wannabe Julius Caesar.

p0rtia wrote: ↑Sun Nov 14, 2021 7:58 pm Roman history is incredibly bloody and cruel. Gah.

p0rtia wrote: ↑Sun Nov 14, 2021 7:58 pm Wanna-be Caesar works for me.

He is an autocratic prick who is lusting for power and doesn't care who he has to stab in the back or climb over to get it.

Keep in mind that most of the point of democracy is to keep power out of the hands of the Caesar. The Republican party used to be particularly bent on this goal.

No more.

Roman history is incredibly bloody and cruel. Gah.

poplove wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 1:46 am Rep. Gallego wants DoD to end ‘traitor’ Michael Flynn’s pension
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/na ... ion-495140

The letter to Secretary Austin: https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017d ... fa0c6a0000

In light of new reporting that former national security adviser MICHAEL FLYNN pushed the Pentagon to seize ballots during the 2020 presidential election, a House Armed Services Committee member is calling on the retired general to lose his military pension.

In a new letter to Secretary of Defense LLOYD AUSTIN sent today and obtained exclusively by NatSec Daily, Rep. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-Ariz.) said taxpayers should no longer foot the former Defense Intelligence Agency chief’s bill.

I agree with that, in principle.

Flynn should be “stripped of any military benefits he receives due to his encouragement of and involvement in violent attempts to overturn our democratic process,” the lawmaker and former Marine wrote.

Yup.

“These outrageous actions are unacceptable for anyone who currently serves or previously served in uniform. Any retiree or servicemember who suggests committing treasonous acts such as overthrowing our democratically-elected government forfeits their moral entitlement to the support of the people of the United States.”

Indeed

NatSec Daily had a brief call with Gallego to understand why he’s leading this charge. “Because he’s a traitor,” he said of Flynn. “I think he should go to jail, but what’s currently within the power of the DoD is to remove his pension.”

Um, no. Well, OK, but a bunch of shit has to happen first. Including a conviction at trial by general court-martial, with a sentence that includes a punitive discharge.

ABC News’ JONATHAN KARL describes in his book a scene in which Flynn frantically called his friend and DOD official EZRA COHEN and implored him to overturn the presidential election results. Flynn told Cohen, the Pentagon’s top intelligence official at the time, that he “needed to get orders signed, that ballots needed to be seized, and that extraordinary measures needed to be taken to stop Democrats from stealing the election."

“Sir, the election is over,” Cohen responded, per Karl’s book titled “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show.” “It's time to move on.” Flynn snapped back: “You're a quitter! This is not over! Don't be a quitter!”

Some fear that canceling Flynn's pension could set a precedent for politically motivated reprisals.

I’d be worried about that too if it were possible to merely “cancel” his pension.

But Gallego insists Flynn’s conservatism, penchant for conspiracy and loyalty to former President DONALD TRUMP doesn’t rise to the level of ending his pension payments.

Well, he’s right about that.

Heck, he doesn’t even wish that on veteran Jan. 6 insurrectionists who rioted non-violently inside the Capitol. The red line, he says, should be anyone who tries to orchestrate the overthrow of legitimate American election results.

I agree.

As for next steps, the lawmaker says the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs have the authority to stop the money flow to Flynn’s accounts.

As discussed, it’s not that simple. They don’t have the authority to say, “No soup for you!” The ONLY way to take a military retiree’s pension is through conviction at general court-martial, and even then only if he gets a punitive discharge as part of the punishment.

The cessation of payments doesn’t require an act of Congress, though he hopes Republicans will support him in this “crusade,” as he calls it.

An act of congress stripping him of his pension, arguably, would be violative of the ex post facto clause of the constitution.

“I’m really going to ramp this up after the information we just got,” he said of the revelations in Karl’s book.

Do it! Just be prepared for the Pentagon to tell you that they’ll have to convene a GCM first.

A suspension of a retiree’s pay can happen for many reasons, such as not disclosing that they work for a foreign government or they're mentally incapable of managing their own affairs.

If that’s true, it’s news to me. I’m not aware of any reason to “suspend” a military retiree’s pension, other than by operation of law as the result of a punitive discharge.

It’s unclear if DoD has “attempted to overthrow an election” as one of its criteria.

Given that there are no “criteria,” I think it’s unlikely.

And it’s also unclear what Flynn’s retirement pay is, exactly, but a four stars’ pension can be in the high $200,000s.

Foggy wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 8:04 am

Off Topic

Just as a matter of curiosity, what happened to Commode Door Walter's pension when he was in the Tennessee State Prison for three years? Did he have a fund built up when he was released?