On Saturday, Michael Flynn was at Donald Trump’s side when news of a North Korean missile launch came in. In fact, he helped the president by holding up a camera phone to shine a light on sensitive documents while the president discussed the matter for the entertainment of nearby diners. Not only does this action show breathtaking disregard for national security, why is Flynn still there in the first place?
As of Monday, February 13, Michael Flynn is still President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser.
Flynn remains in this position even though the Washington Post revealed on February 9 that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with a Russian diplomat prior to Trump’s inauguration — something Flynn, other administration officials, and even Vice President Mike Pence have all personally denied.
Of course, there has been reassuring words from an authoritative source.
x
BREAKING: Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russian ambassador to Washington did not discuss lifting sanctions - Kremlin
Well, if the Kremlin says it, then it must be true. Just like how the Kremlin says it did no hacking of the US election and has no forces in Ukraine. But oddly enough, not everyone buys into everything the Kremlin says.
Let us set the dials on the Wayback machine for 43 years … or wait, can it really just be four months?
“Hillary Clinton … sent classified information, even during her travels overseas, jeopardizing the national security of the American people by allowing her emails to be hacked by foreign intelligence services,” Trump’s campaign website declared. But it wasn’t just Clinton who was the target of his criticism: The Democratic National Committee got hacked because it didn’t have a “very strong defense system against hacking” the way the Republicans did.
From the way in which national security was a central part of his campaign, it might be expected that Trump would sign one of those executive orders putting some hard restrictions on how every jot and tittle of government information is handled. But Trump does like to be unpredictable … and who would have predicted that all his talk about national security was just that. Talk.
As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe's evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.
In just the last week, Trump also left the locked bag open and accessible to non-approved White House visitors, and we learned that Michael Flynn has been sharing phone calls, texts, and emails with the Russian ambassador over an unsecured line.
During that talk at Mar-a-lago, Flynn was very helpful in shining a light onto security documents from his mobile phone.
How fired up has Daily Kos been on behalf of Jon Ossoff, the Democrat running in the special election for Tom Price’s House seat in suburban Atlanta? Let me put it to you this way:
The all-time record holder for most money received from this community for a single campaign was—you won’t be too surprised to learn—Elizabeth Warren, for whom we raised more than $412,000 over the course of her successful bid for Senate in 2012.
Ossoff beat that record in one week.
That, of course, is not a reason to slack off. Quite the contrary: Now we have to work even harder to make sure Ossoff takes one of the top two slots in the April 18 primary, when all candidates from all parties run together on a single ballot. If not, we could wind up with two Republicans in the June runoff. That would be an absolutely unacceptable disaster, which is why we all need to keep giving.
But Ossoff needs more than just dollars. He needs warm bodies, too—to call supporters, knock on doors, host house parties, and do all the million and one things a campaign has to do in order to win.
The good news is that you can sign up to help right here. And you don’t have to live near Georgia’s 6th Congressional District to volunteer (though it’s great if you’re local!). There are all kinds of activities, like virtual phonebanking, that you can do no matter where you are.
Here’s an excellent (and scary) point about how brazen the lies coming from the Trump regime, and specifically from National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, are. Remember how Flynn first flatly denied discussing sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, then—right around the time reports came out that the two men had indeed discussed sanctions—walked it back to saying he couldn’t remember? About that:
In pretty much every capital worldwide, embassies that provide sanctuary to hostile intelligence services are subject to counterintelligence surveillance, including monitoring phone calls. Our spy services conduct signals intelligence—SIGINT for short—against the Russian embassy in Washington, just as the Russians do against our embassy in Moscow. Ambassadors’ calls are always monitored: that’s how the SpyWar works, everywhere.
Ambassador Kislyak surely knew his conversations with Flynn were being intercepted, and it’s incomprehensible that a career military intelligence officer who once headed a major intelligence agency didn’t realize the same. Whether Flynn is monumentally stupid or monumentally arrogant is the big question that hangs over this increasingly strange affair.
Monumentally stupid and monumentally arrogant aren’t mutually exclusive, of course, as so many people associated with Trump appear determined to remind us on a daily basis.
That observation, by the way, comes from the Observer. And while Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is no longer the publisher of the news site, the current publisher is Kushner’s brother-in-law, and the editor-in-chief is a Kushner family friend hired by Jared.
Shorter congressional Republicans: Yes, Donald Trump says irresponsible and dangerous things on a daily basis, looks eager to provoke a constitutional crisis, is producing unprecedented levels of protest, and his team is probably leaking directly to Russia. But that’s all fine, because we expect him to give us our wish list by signing tax cuts for the rich and shredding the safety net.
“There’s a widely held view among our members that, yes, he’s going to say things on a daily basis that we’re not going to like,” said Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking Senate Republican, “but that the broad legislative agenda and goals that we have — if we can stay focused on those and try and get that stuff enacted — those would be big wins.” [...]
“I think we can get a lot done with the people around him,” Mr. McCain said, dismissing policy pronouncements from Mr. Trump that often differ from “the day before.”
Practically patting Mr. Trump on the head, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said, “If he pays attention to people like General Kelly when he’s doing a travel restriction and if he appoints people like Neil Gorsuch when he’s making appointments, he’ll be rewarded for that by all the praise, and maybe he’ll do more of it.” (Former Gen. John F. Kelly is the Homeland Security secretary.)
These idiots want to treat the president of the United States as a distraction and pretend they can control him, or at least work around him. But based on the last three weeks, who’s setting the agenda?
Everyone hates it when a dictatorial regime launches a ballistic missile before the main course.
The launch, which wasn't expected, presented Trump with one of the first breaking national security incidents of his presidency. It also noisily disrupted what was meant to be an easygoing weekend of high-level male bonding with the more sobering aspects of global diplomacy.
Yes, an easygoing weekend. Because, believe it or not, Donald Trump has managed to do this much damage to the nation while spending 20% of his time on vacation. Having spent the afternoon using guest / captive Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as a spiffy accouterment for people who “paid him a lot of money,” Trump had laid out a big spread, just in time to have it interrupted by North Korea firing off a ballistic missile.
The Pukguksong-2, previously unpublicized part of its arsenal which North Korean state media described as a medium long-range ballistic missile, was test fired on Sunday under the supervision of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, KCNA.
It’s the sort of thing that might seem like it demands, say, getting up from the table. Perhaps consulting with experts. But that’s only for people who don’t have very good brains and lots of blue cheese dressing already poured.
As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe's evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.
Does that crooner have a special tune for when Trump requests the nuclear football?
These are chaotic and anxious days inside the National Security Council, the traditional center of management for a president’s dealings with an uncertain world.
Three weeks into the Trump administration, council staff members get up in the morning, read President Trump’s Twitter posts and struggle to make policy to fit them. Most are kept in the dark about what Mr. Trump tells foreign leaders in his phone calls. Some staff members have turned to encrypted communications to talk with their colleagues, after hearing that Mr. Trump’s top advisers are considering an “insider threat” program that could result in monitoring cellphones and emails for leaks." [...]
"While Mr. Obama liked policy option papers that were three to six single-spaced pages, council staff members are now being told to keep papers to a single page, with lots of graphics and maps.
“The president likes maps,” one official said."
There’s plenty more of the same at the link. And I could spend a couple of hours working up a lengthy commentary for everybody to skim. But sometimes a headline says it all.
100,000 cubic feet per second thundering through the spillway at Oroville Dam
100,000 cubic feet per second thundering through the spillway at Oroville Dam
A dangerous condition continues at the nation’s tallest dam.
A light flow of water began washing into the emergency spillway Saturday and the volume of water began to increase. Around 3 p.m. (6 p.m. ET) Sunday, authorities learned that the dam's emergency spillway was also eroding, Honea said.
This is the first time in the dam’s history that water levels have reached the point of flowing into not just the main spillway, but the emergency spillway. The volume of water flowing into the emergency spillway ripped a hole in the concrete which rapidly expanded to 250’ width. Releasing additional water down the spillway risks erosion that could rapidly undercut the structure. If the spillway failed it could still release a 30’ wall of water down the valley, damaging a significant region and endangering tens of thousands.
To reduce the strain on the emergency spillway, authorities have increased the flow from the main spillway to 100,000 cubic feet per second—double the normal rate. This risks damage to the main spillway, but should bring the lake level down to the point where more normal operation is possible.
A pontoon bridge sits grounded by drought at Lake Oroville in 2015
Just two years ago, the lake was at less than 25% of its normal volume due to severe, ongoing drought, but an exceptionally rainy year with heavy precipitation over the winter has not just filled the lake, but raised it to the highest levels ever recorded, with water still flowing into the reservoir at over 50,000 cubic feet per second.
Evacuation orders have been issued for parts of several counties, including the area of Yuba City and Marysville City.
Texas Democratic Rep. and potential 2018 Senate candidate Joaquin Castro
Texas Democratic Rep. and potential 2018 Senate candidate Joaquin Castro
Leading Off
●TX-Sen, TX-Gov, TX-32: Donald Trump decisively carried Texas last fall, but his 52-43 win was the GOP's weakest performance in a presidential race in 20 years. The last time a Democrat was elected statewide was 1994, but local leaders are hoping that a 2018 backlash against Trump will at least give them a shot at several offices.
According to the Texas Tribune, Team Blue's major focus is the Senate race. Reps. Beto O'Rourke and Joaquin Castro have both talked about challenging GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, and the consensus seems to be that O'Rourke is more likely to run. Cruz has the advantage of running for re-election in a red state, but the disadvantage of… well, being Ted Cruz. It's tough to see Cruz losing to a Democrat, but it's worth taking him on in case there's a blue wave next year; at the very least, a credible Democrat could inspire voters to turn out for other contests.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, meanwhile, will be extremely hard to beat, and there don't seem to be any well-known Democrats looking to face him. Ex-San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who is Joaquin Castro's identical twin brother, is frequently talked about as a possible future statewide candidate, but he says he's "unlikely" to run for anything next year. That "unlikely" gives him a little room to change his mind, but the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development does seem to be waiting for another year. The Tribune says that state party Finance Chairman Mike Collier is the "most frequently floated gubernatorial candidate." Collier lost the comptroller race 58-38 in 2014 but impressed Democrats in defeat; the Tribune also says he's been touted as an opponent against the powerful and notorious Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
Democrats are also hoping that they can beat Attorney General Ken Paxton or state Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. Paxton is currently awaiting trial for securities fraud, and prosecutors are arguing that he and his supporters are on a "crusade" to influence possible jurors. Miller meanwhile, is a grade-A asshole and conspiracy theorist. The Tribune says no Democrats have stepped up to challenge either man, and both Republicans still have a lot of room for error in a state this red. But if Team Blue could pull off a longshot win, it would go a long way to restocking the statewide Democratic bench.
Last cycle, Hillary Clinton carried three GOP-held House seats, and Democrats will want to try and target them. The Dallas-based 32nd District surprisingly swung from 57-42 Romney to 48.5-46.6 Clinton. However, the area remains very red downballot, and ex-NRCC chair Pete Sessions will have all the money he could possibly need to win. Dallas school board member Miguel Solis is the first Democrat we've heard mentioned for this post, and he tells the Tribune he's considering.
There's no word on who Team Blue is looking at against GOP Rep. John Culberson in the Houston-area 7th District. Like Sessions' seat, the 7th is very red downballot and Culberson is entrenched, but the district swung from 60-39 Romney to 48.5-47.1 Clinton. The 23rd, which stretches from El Paso to San Antonio, backed Clinton 50-46; however, Republican Rep. Will Hurd won a competitive race 48-47, and we also haven't heard of anyone looking to challenge him next year yet.
Valentine's Day is tomorrow. As usual, nearly ten billion of those addictive Sweethearts candies will be pumped out for the occasion. But they have a rival this year, courtesy of the Trump corporation, which is totally not violating any emoluments clauses by doing this so SHUT UP OR I'LL SEE YOU IN COURT. Here are some of the sayings you'll find on Tweethearts, the Valentine's Day candies America's #1 narcissist gives himself:
SO BIGLY
NO PUPPET!
BE MY AFRICAN-AMERICAN?
MY MAR-A-LAGO OR YOURS?
LEADING IN ALL THE NOT-FAKE POLLS!
VERY CLASSY
NOT A LOSER
I KNOW MANY THINGS!
#1 PUSSY GRABBER
I ♥ ME
BORED FROM ALL THE WINNING
YUGE HANDS
PUTIN LUV
FAILING NYT IS A TERRIBLE KISSER. SAD!
KICK A JUDGE
CHICKS DIG NUKE STRIKES
MELANIA, YOU ARE FORBIDDEN FROM EATING ANY OF MY TWEETHEARTS CANDIES BECAUSE YOU’LL JUST PUT ON WEIGHT. PLUS THEY’RE MINE, NOT YOURS, IT’S IN THE PRE-NUP.
May he gag on his horny goat weed.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
No let-up in The Crazy this weekend! Welcome to Week Four of The Apprentice.
I don’t know how long things can bend like this without breaking. W. made it almost one full year.
Well, let’s round up the last weekend, and blissfully assume we’re going to make it to the next one!
I hope we do, because Saturday is 30th day since Trump’s inauguration, which means the awesome plan (from His GeneralsTM) to defeat ISIS is due on his desk. Unless that was just campaign bull$#*t, of course.
But he wouldn’t do that, because that’s national security and whatnot. That’s, like, serious.
The Kagro in the Morning show is growing by leaps & bounds! Probably because more and more of you are finding that some morning political chatter among friends is the only way to face the day.
Give it a try and see if it doesn’t make your day a little easier to take. And if you’re already sold on it, well, our Patreon account is a great way to let us know! (And let us eat!)
Say, how about a free listen to our most recent show, just to seal the deal?
