Bay 12 Games Forum

Flynn lied to FBI in an interview. That's a felony, he can be prosecuted for that. The question is, will DoJ do it? They could be already controlled by traitors.

Depends what the definition of is is.

He said he didn't discuss sanctions but did discuss the expulsion of Russian officials, which was part of the sanctions. It would be a legal battle over whether those expulsion count as sanctions or not. Unless he actually went further in the call transcripts. Then it is a lot clearer.

All of which also hinges on whether Sessions recuses himself. If he fails to, in this or other cases he is personally or politically tied to, he may be able to block or reduce prosecution, but would then face ethics charges himself.

Remember we are relying on leaks here, and the original story changed a few times before settling on the current narrative. We may be seeing dueling leaks each trying to set a narrative for the press. Patience and good, cautious sources are important here.

And then said person will be forever known as "that asshole who tried to sell a free-moddable sword for two bucks" and be ignored.

I mean, do you think that those kind of people somehow hold ultimate power over the entire community, or what?

The problem is the community who would be aware of the theft and raise a stink would only be a small part of the total community who use mods, especially if promoted through a platform like the Steam Workshop. The person who created it would still make money off it unless an actual takedown attempt was successful. Hell, many who enjoy such a mod would be offended if it was removed, being unaware of the free version. This is especially true if, as with the original attempt at paid mods, many mods are not on the Steam Workshop but instead on other platforms like Nexus. Casual players would never find the alternative.

It's still down to people who want to pay paying, so it's not necessarily exploitative of the end user (although an argument can be made it is exploiting their ignorance of the free option, or their laziness to use the easy platform rather than learning to use Nexus), but it offends the sensibility and community spirit of the modders, reducing the likelihood of people posting new mods. So long as the modder feels exploited or otherwise offended that is all you need to do harm to the modding scene.


FWIW, I think that developers can treat modders as recruitment pools for work-for-hire modelling/art works (as with the DBG Player Studio model I mentioned before) when games are funded by micro-transactions and otherwise unmodifiable without any of these conflicts. Similarly they should always consider modders as potential developers/designers (how any of Paradox's employees started that way now?), possibly bringing the mods into the game as official features at the same time. Of course, this depends on the development model of the game. Games that receive continuous development (frequent patches and a full dev team continuing work) are more likely to take this approach than those that are locked at release with only occasional DLC/expansions. Once there isn't a dev team to be hired into it's harder for the developer to reward the modders who keep the game interesting.

Withdrawal now confirmed.

The guy has worked with Mattis in the past, which I've read around has it's pros and cons. He's also worked on the NSC before under Bush 43, although in a lower position, so, he already knows how things are supposed to work, which is an absolute plus here.

Heard mostly good things from most sources, and the only attack was from a wingnut on Twitter who read he went to high school in Iran and decided that made him a security threat. There is some fear that the White House will become a circle jerk of Mattis insiders, but right now I think that is a lesser risk. At least this is a position where you want military insiders.


Jack Goldsmith continues to hammer on McGahn. EDIT to expand on this; He lays out a timeline of events that show the absurdity of the administration's claims and that the facts outline suggest the White House Council is either having their legal advice misrepresented or they acted incompetently and offered poor council to the president.

For those who aren't familiar with Goldsmith, he resigned from the Bush era Office of Legal Council in an attempt to get the John Yoo torture memos withdrawn. Those who don't know the story should give it a read. It's worth noting that even Yoo, whose memos were used as a legal shield against prosecution for torture, has been criticising Trump lately. Goldsmith has the integrity and chops to criticise the OLC. But going far enough to offend Yoo's sensibilities by overreaching executive power is just absurd.

I honestly don't think Valve are dumb enough to just openly try it again with all mods - I think it'll mutate into 3rd party DLC. The problem with this is that we're gonna end up with developers putting even LESS stuff in, as there's an expectation modlc will cover it (which I strongly believe they do with Bethesda games).

Sounds like Daybreak Game's Player Studio model. User created cosmetics that are approved are sold in game for a 40% royalty to the creator. A large amount of the purchasable cosmetics are created through the scheme. But we are talking about micro(sic)transaction funded MMOs (Everquest 1/2 and Planetside 2), which are not the same business model as most mod-targetted games. Not to mention that cosmetics are easier to test and clear to include in the game.

Flynn was interviewed by the FBI in the early days of the administration. At the time he was maintaining he had not discussed sanctions on the calls, at least publicly. If he made the same statements to the FBI, meet 18 USC §1001. That would be a much more likely criminal angle than the Logan Act.

The OGE has recommended action be taken against Conway for her violation of ethics rules. It would be up to the White House to actually do anything, but at least some bodies are watching and calling them out.

Two pieces from a different direction;

Jack Goldsmith believes the real danger from Trump is too weak a presidency.

We also need a strong, competent, well-organized Executive branch to keep us safe from threats abroad.  Weakness and disorganization and uncertain fortitude in foreign and defense policy invite aggressive actions from adversaries.   I have confidence in Mathis and Tillerson.  But I also have little doubt that there is a connection between the President’s reckless foreign policy tweeting, his attacks on the intelligence community, and disarray in the National Security Council, on the one hand, and the recent North Korean and Iranian missile tests (among other recent provocations), on the other.  Weak presidencies enhance the likelihood of a foreign policy crisis that weak presidents are ill-suited to redress, and indeed that often bring out the worse in a weak president—especially one who is thin-skinned, uninformed, and impulsive.

Similarly, Andy Wright argues Trump's actions are weakening America's power on the world stage.

Dismissive signals have not just been confined to the diplomatic bureaucracy. The White House has also undermined its top two politically appointed diplomats. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley both had encounters with the White House that assuredly left them diminished in the eyes of their foreign counterparts. On Friday, Haley blocked the appointment of former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to be the UN’s special representative to Libya, reversing herself after she had greenlighted it to U.N. leadership. As reported by Foreign Policy, “senior U.S. officials in Washington and New York assured U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and other diplomats that they would accept him for the job.” Fayyad is generally regarded as a moderate in the Palestinian-Israeli context, although Israel objected to his appointment. After the United States objected, Guterres called Fayyad “the right person for the right job at the right time.” His rejection may be debatable as a matter of policy. But Haley’s about face will have lasting consequences for her credibility at the United Nations. Now, foreign diplomats wonder whether Haley even “has her mercurial boss’s ear.”

Similarly, Trump rejected Tillerson’s request to appoint longtime Reagan and Bush foreign policy aide Elliott Abrams as Deputy Secretary of State. Abrams is not without controversy: He pled guilty to concealing knowledge of arms sales in the Iran-Contra affair, for which President George H.W. Bush pardoned him. But it was Abrams’ campaign criticism of Trump, not his criminality, which drove the president’s decision. But putting aside the merits of Abrams as a choice, this flap sends an unmistakable signal to the world that Tillerson may not be on the same page as Trump.
...
At present, though, the White House is undermining both his new appointees and the old hands, leaving the world with the impression that these diplomatic professionals do not speak on behalf of the president nor do they have his ear. Foreign governments will take their cues. The White House’s dismissiveness will make it much more difficult for U.S. diplomats to secure counter-terrorism assistance in the Horn of Africa, open up supply routes for troops in Afghanistan, gain access to rare earth minerals in South America, and level effective multilateral sanctions against entities affiliated with ISIS.

I mostly want to spread these pieces as they make a strong argument that Trump is weak exactly where his supporters see - and Republicans demand - strength. He is weakening America's national security and foreign policy, destroying any chance of achieving the muscular goals he set out during the campaign while putting lives at risk at home and elsewhere.

It is important to note that backchannel, i.e. unofficial communications between different national intelligence communities is, very very common, even between countries with strained relations.

Even during the cold war there were double agents on both sides known on both sides to be double agents that were consciously used to pass information between in an unofficial capacity.

It may be this was simply approved protocol and flynn only stepped in it when he lied. (Although the bad press certainly comes with its own consequences. And probably pushed them to attack the matter.)

Oh, I don't really doubt that his actions were taken in accordance with Trump's views, maybe even explicit permission. They were perfectly in line with his past statements and actions. Flynn's past is well known and public, and that is why Trump hired him. I think that the incompetence that was overlooked for his Russia and Islam views has caught up with him here.

Also, known double agents were traditionally put into mushroom boxes; kept in the dark and fed shit. You don't put them in charge of the National Security Council will full access to confidential materials, briefings and calls.