How does a twice convicted felon arrive at a nexus point involving Trump, the FBI, the CIA, The American mob, The Russian mob, right wing Ukrainian politicians and Russian Oligarchs?

Actually this is old news, mostly ignored by the MSM, only reemerging because of last weeks  NYT report detailing the secret Ukrainian peace plan.

IMO this validates narrative that the Trump administration is pursuing back door diplomacy, as many have alleged. While that is not that unusual in the annals of history the current cast of characters sure seems odd to say the least.

Not invited by CPAC organizers, the white nationalist and self-identified leader of the alt-right purchased a ticket and showed up anyway. Spencer sat in the audience wearing a brown three-piece suit and a smirk as one of the conference's organizers gave a speech titled "The Alt Right Ain't Right At All."

Less than an hour later, Spencer was escorted out of the hotel by security.

'I was asked by my speaker's bureau, LAI. I do public speaking. It was in Russia. It was a paid speaking opportunity,' Flynn told the paper.

'The gig was to do an interview with [RT correspondent] Sophie Shevardnadze. It was an interview in front of the forum, probably 200 people in the audience,' he said.

After the speech, Flynn sat at Putin's table, and was seated at his right-and side.

Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Obama, also said he briefed Russian intelligence on the trip, which he noted had been approved by the U.S. government.

'I had a great trip. I was the first U.S. officer ever allowed inside the headquarters of the GRU [Russian intelligence]. I was able to brief their entire staff,' Flynn said.

So the tip was approved by the Obama administration."

Asked if that was something he wanted to do, Flynn responded: 'DIA has offices in 142 countries. I was visiting some of our key attachés and one of them was [in] Russia.'

Flynn came under investigation for an allegation he shared highly classified information with British and Australian forces.

'I'm proud of that one,' he told the Post. 'Accuse me of sharing intelligence in combat with our closest allies. Please!'

I have been mostly brushing off this chatter about the deep state from both the left and the right as just a rebranding of the same old bureaucracies and their usual corporate cronies(think MIC or the Homeland security/Intelligence community). I kind of wrote it off as a retelling of the same old battle that has existed for decades between our elected leaders and the agencies they are supposed to control.

Now that the Flynn affair has come to a close(at least this chapter), I have stepped back and seen that the so called DS has shown it's power with a swiftness and overtness that I never have seen before. Make no mistake the DS wanted Flynn out(for good reason IMO)and they took him down hard.

BTW - The WP's interview is "condensed" which is a nifty way of saying the writer has left out some things.

But the overall gist is that of a patriot. And he wasn't very kind to Obama or the Clintons.

PRIEST: To broaden the discussion on the Russia question a little bit, there's [Trump adviser] Carter Page having business interest and Paul Manafort have business interests there.

FLYNN: How about the Clintons? ... If that's all you want to talk about, I don't want to do this anymore.

PRIEST: But that's not all I'm talking about. I'm trying to just get it out there on the table.

FLYNN: You know what? I don't know what their business interests are. I've talked with Paul Manafort, met him, but if Carter Page walked in here, I wouldn't know who he is ... you know what? Look at the amount of money the Global Clinton Initiative is taking from countries right now.

PRIEST: And what do you make of that?

FLYNN: It's an incredible level of corruption. And talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouths and this whole business about women's rights, some of these countries there are no rights for women. Why do we take a dollar? Why do we give a dollar to countries that have no rights for women? We have to think about that.

snip

FLYNN: When I was in JSOC we were still deeply involved in Iraq. We were still at war essentially. Then I went to Central Command and Bush was still in charge, then joint staff ... then we had the transition to Obama and Obama turned everything to, he made Afghanistan the priority, not Iraq, and frankly it took forever to just get the entire system to change to that. ... There was no recognition that we were facing an ideology that was expanding.

PRIEST: Were they being told that?

FLYNN: The intelligence system was telling them that these organizations are growing, that the ideology was radicalizing and these guys are beyond little ol' Afghanistan and little ol' Iraq and Syria. The intelligence was very clear, still is.

PRIEST: What would you have wanted the strategy to be?

FLYNN: I would want this enemy to be clearly defined by this president and he just refused to do it. This is not about countering violence extremist movements, the "CVE," this is about going after an ideology that is within the Islamic world that is like a metastasized cancer that has grown and this president has been presented that information, routinely, often, and has been shown this enemy for what it is and still refuses to call it for what it is,.....

Three years ago, Reeves (71) shot and killed Chad Oulsen allegedly for using a cell phone and being confrontational in a movie theater. It's been called the "popcorn shooting" because Oulsen allegedly threw a bag of popcorn at Reeves.  

"Stand your ground" defense  became  known to many during the George Zimmerman trial even though it  had nothing to do with Zimmerman's case.  His was a basic self defense claim. However, people like the author of  this article, David Boroff  still don't get that.

George Zimmerman avoided prison time for the killing of Trayvon Martin five years ago after using the Stand Your Ground defense.

The operation, not authorized under Justice Department rules, gave agents an off-the-books way to finance undercover investigations and pay informants without the usual cumbersome paperwork and close oversight, according to court records and people close to the operation.

"....things weren't as originally reported"

Talk about an understatement.

My take was the Media saw a headline grabber, and felt no need to do any in-depth investigation, once known as "Journalism."

Astronomers have discovered seven roughly Earth-size planets very close to a cool dwarf star some 39 light-years from Earth, including three orbiting in the star's habitable zone where liquid water, a key ingredient for life as it's known on Earth, could be present, researchers announced Wednesday.

Quartz:

Trump has been a vocal critic of the mainstream media for years. And, as president, he's used his pulpit, among other things, to slam liberal-leaning publications and discredit news reports he claims are false with cries of "fake news." But there's one byproduct of Trump's war with the media that he likely didn't count on.

The attention he's paid the press has drawn droves of readers and viewers to the very media outlets he's bashed.

Tuesday's confrontation began over what Anaheim police described as "ongoing issues" with the juveniles walking across the officer's property. During the argument, police said, a 13-year-old threatened to shoot the off-duty officer, prompting him to attempt to detain the teen.