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sheeeit

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Everything posted by sheeeit

  1. I really like all of these guys. I already had insights into the actual personalities of all of them except Brady. It always amuses me when you see the guys behind the cameras how they are actually kind of dorky, except for Payton. Brady calling everybody baby was kind of surreal. He sounded like a complete and total doofus. if I was going to rank them on who I would enjoy playing in a member guest with it would be Manning, Mickelson, Woods and a distant Brady. Don’t get me wrong. He is an amazing athlete and an all-time great. He is probably a super guy but I just don’t think he would be that much fun to hang out with.
  2. Tough one. Good arguments can be made for all of them. If we are talking 2020 NBA where 3’s are hyper valued and it is necessary for point guards to create their own shots I would say: nash, cp3, payton, stock, kidd
  3. OK. Maybe we just disagree. I assumed that the reason the DOJ did not spend much time on the lie aspect was because Flynn's petition did not rely on it. Obviously, everything goes into the equation when two sides are arguing. At the end of the day (especially because the transcripts were never produced) the defense went with a different legal tactic. This is similar to the fact that Flynn;'s plea made no mention of FARA, or Logan Act, or his son's prosecution etc. But all of those things were obviously very important in his decision making. We will also just have to disagree on the transcript part. Lets take Flynn out of the equation. Do you think it is "right" for the govt to be able to go to a person and accuse them of lying and then not have to share with them the evidence that they have regarding the lie? I am talking from a big picture prospective. It just doesnt seem right to me that the govt can go after someone and cause them considerable financial and reputational harm and use that as leverage to get them to cop a plea and never have to actually show them the evidence. It is like the govt saying we have the proof and it is going to cost you millions of dollars in legal fees to see it. I just did not think the system worked that way. Anyway, I appreciate the feedback and insights.
  4. What do you think that proves anyway? You think people have never plead to things they were innocent of? It happens daily. How about this other "public" statement anyone can read: Stupid is as stupid does.
  5. I get all of that, and I just used 1 example. You are the attorney, but it certainly seems to me that if you were negotiating a plea deal regarding your client lying to the FBI and the agents that did the interview stated that they did not think your client was lying, that you would be able to use that in your negotiations. Especially considering they (flynn and his lawyer) never got to see the transcript. If in a 5 minute phone call there was 10 seconds of Kislyak asking about sanctions and Flynn telling him they would talk about that after the inauguration (a completely forgettable 10 seconds) then you would tell the fbi to go pound sand. And without getting way off in the legal weeds, it is being alleged that the fbi used prosecuting his son as leverage against flynn to plea. I don't think there is anything wrong with that but don't they have to disclose that in his plea? Since they were wanting to use him in future cases as a witness, doesn't the other team and the jury deserve to know that the fbi used prosecuting his son as leverage? Shouldn't that have a bearing on his credibility? I am not sure you are correct about the governments motion. It does include this ""The Government is not persuaded that it could show that Mr. Flynn committed a false statement under its burden of proof," the filing said. "The statements in question were not by their nature easily falsifiable. In his interview, Mr. Flynn offered either equivocal ('I don’t know') or indirect responses, or claimed to not remember the matter in question." Seems like that says they didn't think he lied or, at a minimum, that they could prove it. I am genuinely curious why you (and any other attorneys on here) will not comment on the fact that the govt was able to put pressure on flynn for lying in his call and not have to give him a copy of the call transcript.
  6. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/09/25/on-the-record-the-u-s-administrations-actions-on-russia/ Hard to tell how much teeth all these have but it is incorrect to say this admin has not done anything to Russia. And yes, Trump is still an idiot.
  7. If he did talk materially about sanctions then it would be very, very hard to say he didn't remember doing so to the fbi. In that instance, he should be charged with lying because the lie would be 1) intentional/knowingly and 2) material to an underlying investigation about russian election interference. Number 2 would still be a little specious but it would certainly cause more scrutiny. Hopefully we get the transcript. What has been "leaked" is that when asked about sanctions by the fbi, he said something to the effect of "i dont remember talking about sanctions specifically. We might have but I don't think so." It was reported that Kislyak asked about sanctions in some capacity and Flynn said Trump and Putin can discuss that on their call after the inauguration.
  8. Captain Ant, Hayduke etc are really trying hard to not look at the facts. Flynn may be a bad guy but even bad guys deserve due process. As mentioned previously, Flynn was NEVER acting as some secret foreign agent and never hid ANYTHING from the public or government. For his dinner with Putin, Flynn notified the DIA (that is the intelligence arm of the Defense Department) prior to his trip, was briefed and counseled by the DIA on what to expect and look for in his trip and was then debriefed by the DIA when he returned. Nothing secretive or unethical or illegal at all. On the Turkey stuff, Flynn registered as a lobbyist and signed a contract from a private business and private individual that had ties to Turkey. Flynn asked counsel who he should file the contract with and counsel told him to file with Congress through the Lobbying Disclosure Act because his client was not the government and no government funds were used to pay him. He did file with them. Again, nothing secretive or unethical or illegal at all. On his guilty plea, as mentioned by the attorneys above, people plead guil;ty to things they are not guilty of all of the time for lots of reasons. I agree that if Flynn simply wanted a "do over" I would say fuck him, he plead so he needs to accept the deal he made. However, as we now know based on the recent files being declassified, the FBI hid exculpatory evidence from Flynn and his lawyer. Just as one simple example, the FBI uses their "notes" as evidence all of the time. As a result, they were legally obligated to turn over any notes they had on Flynn. The original FBI agents that interviewed Flynn and detailed the interview said the case on him should be closed and that, the fbi interviewers told their superiors that they did not think Flynn lied to them. Obviously, those notes alone would have a huge bearing on whether or not he would make a deal. it would be extremely difficult to convince a jury he was lying when the original interviewers claimed he was not lying and they had the transcript of the call between Flynn and Kislyak already and no new information was added. The fbi signed 3 sworn affidavits with the judge saying they had provided all of the evidence they were required to give. 3 times. They lied. Further (and I would love either Wulaw or Twice to chime in on this), the fbi never made the actual transcript of the call between flynn and kislyak available to flynn or his lawyers. I really don't see how that is legal but it appears it is. Hopefully the call transcript gets released. If Flynn, did talk materially about sanctions, then he should go to jail. If he didn't, then the fbi guys should go to jail.
  9. Not sure I follow. Are you suggesting Flynn's original lawyers were just trying to appease the special counsel so they could cut a good deal for Flynn? That when they cut the deal, they knew there was more evidence out there but agreed to bury it in order to cut a deal? That sounds like malpractice.
  10. As an aside, I am curious about your take on the withholding of the transcript of the call between Flynn and Kislyak from Flynn and his lawyers. Did you know that was legal? That kind of shocks me. If I read it correctly, you can be questioned by the FBI about a phone call and then later the FBI can come back to you and accuse you of lying about the phone call and when you say that you did not lie and ask them to show you the transcript of the call where you are accused of lying they can basically say no. Then they can start grinding on you and costing you tons of money and you do not even know how to respond because there is no record for you to see and, of course, you likely have no memory of the actual call specifics. How would you personally counsel someone in that situation?
  11. Thanks. Sounds like he had inept lawyers. Is there a distinction between what he had a right to receive and what the DOJ told him? Not sure how to phrase the question, but in reading about the case, it says that on at least 3 occasions the prosecutor, Van Grack, signed sworn affidavits to the judge that he had turned over everything he was required to turn over. Obviously that was a lie as we now know. It just seems strange that the government can get into court, in front of a judge on multiple occasions, and swear they had turned everything over, and then make a deal that says you can't have any more info after the deal. Seems it would be nearly impossible to counsel your client that way. If counsel tells their client, we have seen all of the evidence and based, on that, you need to plead because they will gut us if we go to court, so you plead. But then later find out the prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence, you have no recourse? I know the law is funny sometimes but that just doesn't make sense. Is the distinction "pleading before being charged"? Obviously there was a ton of back and forth between the parties as they hammered out a deal. So is it just a technicality that he shouldn't get discovery after a plea?
  12. Interesting. Is that the case in any plea deal? if I am understanding what you are saying, the government can withhold exculpatory evidence from a defendant and if that defendant pleads guilty, then the government gets away with it? That seems unlikely? What am I missing?
  13. Lulz. Page said he was an advisor to the Kremlin in his marketing of himself for his own financial benefit and said it was on energy related matters. There are 1000s of other finance folks, and 1000s of attorneys and 100,000s of business guys that tout their relationship with russia and the Kremlin. Are they all spies? Should we surveil all of them?
  14. Actually no. What Barr found was that, in this particular case, a particular defendant that plead guilty had exculpatory evidence in his favor that was withheld, illegally, from his defense team. That it is unclear that an actual lie took place, certainly not knowingly or intentional. That the supposed lie had no material effect on any ongoing investigation and that the case was scheduled to be closed because the FBI's own field office recommended "the FBI close its investigation of Flynn, as its exhaustive search through government databases “did not yield any information on which to predicate further investigative efforts."" If those same facts exist with Steele or the FBI then they should walk also.
  15. It really depends on the 3 words that were omitted. The reason it was actually "earth shattering" is because the warrant would not have been approved as written if the FBI admitted that Page was a source for the CIA. The application process would get much, much more difficult and more people would have to be made aware of the request. There is a reason that the judges in FISA cases ask if the person in question was working with any other agency. It immediately sends up lots of flares and concerns when it does. The FBI did not want close scrutiny of the application so they just lied about it. Also, I do think indictments will result from Durham's probe but I doubt they get to director level or higher. We will see when the actual report comes out but there is another angle to it that most people have forgotten about. When the FBI used the dossier as part of their evidence against Page, they had to have, by statute, additional corroborating evidence. That is the standard for FISA. The FBI used the media story about the same allegations against Page and claimed that the media article served as independent corroboration. And as part of their filing they included that (paraphrasing) the source for the Dossier (Steele) had not spoken to any media, which then allowed them to use the other media story as corroboration. The problem though, is that the author of the corroborating story openly and publicly stated that Steele was his source. And in some of the recently released emails, Bruce Ohr told the FBI that Steele was talking to the media. So either Steele lied to the FBI or the FBI lied to the court, again, on their application. The guy that wrote the corroborating story said the FBI never contacted him and he was not protecting a source.
  16. Loved the show! I think debates on great teams and players is fun but obviously there is just too much difference between eras to really compare. I think the 70 win Bulls team would handle the 73 win GS team fairly handily. That Bulls team was much more athletic than they get credit for. While Rodman and Pippen were not elite shooters/scorers they actually were elite finishers on the break. With the way GS played, the Bulls would have clamped them down on defense and would have crushed them in a fast paced game. However, I think GS might have the edge in the Durant years. Durant is just so good. Un-guardable, elite shooter as well as an elite finisher. As for Lebron, Kobe etc, I think they are both top 10 all time but not as good as MJ. Discounting the short season after baseball, MJ essentially went 8 years without losing the last game of the season. Truly mind boggling. 6 finals, 6 rings, 6 MVPs in Finals. And maybe the most amazing stat that will likely never be equaled- 4 times MJ was scoring leader, league mvp, finals mvp, and 1st team all defense. 4 times. The rest of the NBA combined-0. Paring that down further, winning a scoring title and being 1st team defense in the same season has happened 12 times. Once by Jerry West, twice by Kobe and 9 times by MJ.
  17. While I love Manute, I dont think that counts as a tan. CSB. I was in Philly back in the day when Manute played for them. Maybe While I loved Manute, I don't think he qualifies as a white tan guy. CSB. Was on a job in Philly in the early 90s when Manute played for the Sixers. Workmate and I decided to drive to Atlantic City to check out the new Trump Taj Majal. It had just opened and was still under some construction (it was crazy how ugly and cheesy it was in the beginning- maybe still is?). Was at a craps table and in walks Manute with an entourage of family and friends. He had a game in Philly that night and he still had on his game uniform and sweats. He comes to our table and stands right beside me. It is shocking how tall he was. We get on a roll and start winning and so we chatted a bit. His english was very broken but he told me that he was living in a suite in the hotel for the entire season. After about an hour or so (he was up around $20,000) and it was about 1:00 am or so and he invites us to dinner. Of course we accept and we follow him (and his entourage) to the elevator and go up to his suite. Craziest scene I may have ever seen. Huge suite, people everywhere and from all ages and races. Clothes and trash and random shit strewn everywhere. There was an african woman (i assumed form where he grew up) completely topless and breast feeding a baby on one of the couches. Just a surreal scene. There was a buffet set up with everything you can imagine to eat- steak, chicken, seafood, potatoes, fruit, salads, african looking peas and rice stuff and a fully stocked bar. We ate and drank for a while and then waved good bye. He almost certainly had to have been broke when he stopped playing.
  18. I am going to just assume you (and many, many others posting about this) are unaware of the actual facts instead of just being either willfully obtuse or just really stupid. Because everything you posted above is false. There is SO much disinformation regarding Flynn that it is hard to even get started. And I could not care less about flynn but it just pisses me off when people blatantly lie about stuff. It also pisses me off that I bet a lot of this information will be new to most of the people that post here. It is all public knowledge. When Flynn retired form the military he signed with an outfit called Leading Authorites LLC (LA). It is a business that partners high end speakers with groups that want them. Been around for 30 years or so. Some current members of LA that you might recognize include: James Clapper (Director of National Intelligence), Stan Mccrystal (Commander of US Troops in Afghanistan), Adm Mike Rogers (Director of NSA), John Allen (USMC 4 Star General) etc. LA takes requests from groups all over the world. They negotiate the fee and all of the details. Every single person that signs with LA is public and all of them advertise their fees and all of them get paid for their work. Flynn, through LA, accepted the gig with RT. Prior to the actual event Flynn not only told the DIA/DOD about the gig, but he actually attended DIA briefings where they coached him on potential tactics that the russians may use against him and then, after the event, the DIA debriefed Flynn on the interaction and actually admitted to learning new information. We have idiots on here and on TV claiming he was potentially a traitor for these meetings and that he was potentially "compromised" by Russia (a certain favorite of GW). Not only was he not a traitor or working in the dark, he actually helped the country's intelligence outfits gain new insight. Knowing this now- read the post i quoted and realize how unbelievably stupid it is and that it is currently being parroted by elected pols and the media. I already said I will assume the GWHaydukes of the world just do not know the facts but the media and other pols certainly do and are just blatantly lying. On the Turkey stuff, this is just unbelievably weak and stupid. Flynn set up a consulting group just like 1000s of ex military and ex politicians do. he was hired by a private business/person in Turkey. he was paid around $600K. Again, people keep saying things like "hiding" or "secretive" etc with Flynn's contact with the Turkish person. The Haydukes and media and anyone else that really wanted the truth could have looked a bit harder at the actual facts. When Flynn's company signed the contract with the Turkish individual they consulted lawyers about who to file with for compliance. They were told not to file with FARA because the induvidual that hired them was not a part of the turkish government and the money was not coming from a government account. Instead Flynn's group (going full brisket here) DID, IN FACT, file the contact with the fucking CONGRESS under the Lobbying Disclosures Act. That is a fucking public filing that anyone could see. Nothing at all hidden. No potential for "compromise". Nothing. Later, Flynn was advised by counsel that he should retroactively file with FARA because it was "possible" that the turkish government could benefit from his work. And he filed. But, the important thing is that Flynn had already filed the work with the government in accordance with lobbying laws. Nothing was hidden. On his lie to the FBI, this is, again, incredibly specious and reported completely without context. First, lying to the FBI is not a crime in itself. For it to be a crime there are 2 factors that have to be present 1) the lie has to be intentional and 2) the lie has to materially affect an ongoing investigation. Once Flynn was named incoming director of the nsa, he talked to (according to him and the FBI) his counterpart (ambassadors and other security people) from 30 different countries. 30. Just had every other incoming director of the nsa in every other admin including reagan, bushes, clinton and obama. Every single one of them. On the first day he is accused of lying, he had 15-18 calls with various foreign government officials and he was on vacation. When he was interviewed by the FBI, according to the actual fbi notes, flynn was aked about discussions regarding sanctions (specifically the expulsion of certain russians) with Kislyak. His answer, again according to the FBI notes, was (paraphrasing)" I may have, but I really do not remember, I dont think so" That is it. After the interview, and with full knowledge of the calls transcripts, the fbi interviewers concluded that Flynn was not intentionally lying, was not acting under any orders from anyone in the trump team and recommended the chapter be closed. Later, the fbi re-opened the case against flynn and claimed he lied to them in his previous interview. They also told the White House he lied and had, in fact talked about sanctions. However, the fbi provided exactly zero proof of this and, to this day, have provided no proof. The fbi went on to charge flynn and went after him for other unrelated items aggressively. They publicly admitted they wanted him to flip on Trump and would be willing to drop all of his charges initially if he cooperated and implicated trump. As we now know, flynn could not implicate trump because there was nothing to implicate him on. Also, the mueller team said Flynn did not implicate trump in anything and that he cooperated fully. As to pleading guilty, it happens all the time and all of you know it. Defending yourself in a federal suit can cost millions. And even if you win the eventual case, you dont get your legal fees back. The fbi offered probation if he cooperated and admitted to lying. He took the deal. Just like thousands of defendants do every day in courts all across the country. The amazing thing to me (and perhaps twicehorn can comment) is that the fbi can prosecute someone for lying and not have to provide the transcript of the call they claimed you lied in. How is that even possible? Apparently though, it is the law. So you have Flynn looking at financial ruin based on a call he did not remember and admitted he did not remember. Yet the fbi gets to claim he did without actually providing the proof. How do you even defend yourself? Now, all of the above is factual and not opinion or speculation. Everything else is pure speculation. Did Flynn actually ask Kislyak to tell Putin to temper a response to the santions? No one has provided any proof of that. There is absolutely no proof whatsoever that Flynn told Kislyak that the trump admin would ease the sanctions. None. All we have is what the fbi alleged and what flynn ultimately plead to. But, as mentioned above, that is not proof at all. I wish the transcript were released. If Flynn directly told Kislyak that the incoming admin would ease sanctions then he should go to jail. If Kislyak asked flynn about sanctions and flynn said they would talk about it again after the inauguration then the fbi folks should go to jail. This is my opinion now. This is from an NPR show featuring an intelligence official who has seen the transcript of the call ""I don't think [Flynn] knew he was doing anything wrong," the official said. "Flynn talked about sanctions, but no specific promises were made. Flynn was speaking more in general 'maybe we'll take a look at this going forward' terms." I think this is closest to the truth. The main reason I think this is because everyone who has accused flynn has never, ever, given any specific mention of what was said. This thing is over and Flynn goes to jail if he said anything material. Yes, technically, if Kislyak asked about sanctions and Flynn said "maybe we will talk about that later" then they talked about sanctions. But nothing material and nothing that Flynn should have had any reason to remember or be concerned with. Further, Comey himself, said the question of whether or nor Flynn lied in his interview was "a close call". If Flynn directly tried to influence admin policy, there is just no way Comey would be this coy.
  19. Of all the people named so far, there is only 1 inarguable fact: Thunder Dan Majerle- Best tan in NBA history. No one close.
  20. A couple of things on Isiah. First, he was a fantastic player. Very worthy of HOF, etc. The problem was when the Pistons were rolling, it was Isiah that was very vocal on the court about the hard fouls. He would get on his teammates if they did not foul someone hard enough and he voiced it, on purpose, so that the opponents heard him. That will get a ton of guys very pissed off. Secondly, the really bush league thing the Pistons did was to foul someone hard AFTER the whistle was blown. They talked about it as a team. You could hit a guy after a whistle was blown back then and not get another foul. Basically a free shot. That is really chickenshit, imo. And, to his credit, MJ went and shook hands with every Piston when they literally beat him up in 1990. They should have returned the class. On the Dream Team, no one knew how that was going to turn out before the team was assembled. There really was not much buy in from the players initially. MJ was the catalyst to getting everyone else. He knew he would be spending a ton of his off-season on the olympic stuff and he just did not want to spend it with Isiah. He really wasn't a dick about it, he just said he did not want to commit if Isiah was on the team. I really cant blame him.
  21. The problem with this line of thinking is that they actually caught the killers and they admitted it. If they had been paid by gamblers/crime thugs to do the killing, don't you think they would have given those guys up for a better sentence? Plus, if it was a paid hit, no way they steal the car and so clumsily dispose of the body. It was just random, stupid criminals.
  22. I should probably clarify my thoughts on Krause. I agree the representation of Krause is fair. But, again just my opinion, the players that were slamming and making fun of Krause absolutely knew that Krause was doing Reinsdorf's bidding. Krause had ZERO say in Pippen's renegotiation. But the players did not want to take on a billionaire owner. The whole Krause was a baseball scout stuff was pretty petty and unfair. He had been a basketball scout/manager previously for a bunch of years and was well qualified for the job (he does get credit for drafting Earl Monroe). He also did a good job, especially early on and, as mentioned, did win executive of the year twice, which was voted on by his peers. Now, he flamed out tremendously late with the Bulls and deserved to get fired. Also, now that Jordan is an owner, it is safe to say that he probably has a whole lot better appreciation for a good GM ( Kwame Brown, Adam Morrison and Diop come to mind). Drafting is such a crapshoot.
  23. Loved it too. A few things. Gambling/Murder- His dad's murder had nothing at all to do with gambling/mafia etc. It was just random bad luck. The killers are in prison. They would have cut a deal if there was more to the story. Just a shame. Flu/Hangover- Silly rumor mongering. He had food poisoning. He was at the hotel with the crew all evening. No Vegas runs. Krause/Reinsdorf- Hard for me to blame Krause too much. Krause did not do anything that Reinsdorf didn't want or approve. The players were a bit passive aggressive going after Krause instead of Reinsdorf. Agreed that Krause was hard to like and had poor personal skills but he was who he was and Reinsdorf knew exactly what he was getting and it was exactly what he wanted. Pippen- Again, tough to blame the Bulls for not re-negotiating. They don't get to renegotiate contracts of players who go bust. Players' like to say it is just a business when they get all they can for themselves and then get their feelings hurt when the owners act like it is a business. Plus, the reality was that Pippen was a very, very good NBA player that was great as a number two. He was not a number one player. In '97 there were plenty of guys you would take over Pippen including: Ewing, Olajuwan, Malone, Shaq, Barkley etc. You could build a team around those guys but not Pippen. Krause actually realized this and was never going to give him a huge deal. It is certainly arguable that Pippen was under paid late in his contract with the Bulls but then you would have to concede that he was massively over paid after the Bulls. Phil Jackson- The genius of Phil was not his ability to handle Jordan but his ability to handle everyone else plus the triangle. The same exists for Poppovitch, Kerr, Riley etc. They had systems in place that gave the role players a routine. There was little thinking or ad-libbing. Very little standing around watching the super star. Jordan forced out the previous coaches because they were not holding the rest of the team to a high enough standard. Jordan did not really want to have to demand it from his teammates (although he certainly did) he wanted the coach to do it for him. Phil was actually really good about demanding excellence from the bit players. Of course Jordan was still incredibly hard on his teammates in practice. The only other guy that had that same practice mentality was Magic. Impossible to know if the championship run would have been able to continue or if they would have won when Jordan went to baseball. IMO, I think they win in '99 for sure and probably win one of the middle two years. One thing about Jordan, he was always very, very guarded in his public statements and image while playing. Never political. He cultivated an image to maximize his endorsements. His father's death took a huge toll on him, even though he sort of downplayed it in the media. Jordan's emotions after the '96 championship are amazing. His first retirement had nothing to do with gambling at all. He was tired, having marital issues, his dad was murdered, he was fantastically rich and just wasn't sure he could put in the effort he knew it would require to win it all. He wasn't willing to play just to cash a check and not be 100%. Greatest of all time when you combine ability, drive, work ethic, mental toughness and focus. You sacrifice a lot to succeed at that level.
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