Making Sense of Trump/Bannon: February 15, 2017

Was without a suitable "device" (translation: my desktop) for four days. Thus the "radio silence."

But here I am, back in business. With a machine that I hope won't self-destruct. (Yes, everything is backed up in multiple ways at multiple services.)

And, sigh, the mess in governance is so wide and deep and, well, messy. Hard to know where to start.

But: Let's begin with something I noted in my original post: Keep your eyes on the lies.

For example, on Sunday, Stephen Miller, who is in the inner circle and attached to Steve Bannon, toured the morning talks shows. He had one message: Voter fraud is rampant, widespread, and everyone knows it. (Here's a profile of Miller.)

As "everyone" knows: There was no voter fraud. There is no voter fraud.

I can't resist including this link to news anchor George Stephanopolous grilling Miller about the alleged fraud. Worth watching:

But it's interesting that Miller was dispatched to disseminate that particular lie/message. As we now know, on Sunday, EVERYONE in the White House knew that Michael Flynn had lied to the FBI and to Vice-President Pence, and that Flynn was on his way out. (According to many news sources, the WH began talking to his replacement earlier that week.)

So Trump/Bannon distracted audiences with the voter fraud stuff. Remember my point about lies/distraction.

Here's a summary of who in the White House, including Trump, knew what when.

This is a basic timeline re. Michael Flynn. Useful for mentally mapping who did what and when. 

But that was then.

The Big Story now is that late Tuesday, the New York Times published a detailed account of a year's worth of contacts between the Trump campaign and various Russian government "representatives."

And here's another reporter's take on that topic, from a more global perspective.

This piece was written by a "security" and espionage expert, who formerly worked at the National Security Agency. He can be a bit hyperbolic, but my experience is that his information is solid. Definitely worth reading, if only to perhaps persuade you that a Trump presidency cannot end well.

In any case, Trump himself denies everything. This morning on Twitter:

This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign.

And:

Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?). Just like Russia.

Finally, here's a piece from Columbia Journalism Review [a non-profit] on why a "free press" matters, on what a "free press" can accomplish in the face of deceit and assaults on the constitution.

That's enough for now. I've got four days of work to catch up on. Thanks for reading. And for being a good citizen. (In my round of three calls this morning, the person at Senator Grassley's office was slightly annoyed with me: I'd called two days in a row. Shame on me!)