* The folks at Axios say that this is Trump’s plan for the midterms:
Here’s Trump’s real plan for ’18:
A source close to the White House tells me that with an eye to getting Republicans excited about voting for Republicans in midterms, the president this year will be looking for “unexpected cultural flashpoints” — like the NFL and kneeling — that he can latch onto in person and on Twitter.
The source said Trump “is going to be looking for opportunities to stir up the base, more than focusing on any particular legislation or issue.”
* The president tweeted this over the weekend:
Let’s break that one down, shall we?
1. The three branches of the government are actually executive, legislative and judicial.
2. Democrats controlled the presidency and both houses of congress in 2009 and 2010. Prior to that there was a Republican president and in 2011, Republicans took control the House.
3. There was no DACA to do anything about until 2012.
4. In December 2010, the House passed the Dream Act 216-198. All but 5 Republicans voted against it.
5. In December 2010, Republicans filibustered the Dream Act in the Senate. It got 55 votes, with 36 Republicans voting “no.”
6. Last, but not least, Republicans currently control the presidency, the House and the Senate. If they are so committed to fixing DACA, go for it!
* Who knew that Rep. Devin Nunes had such a long history with Michael Flynn and his conspiracy theories?
Nunes was in awe of Flynn, who had won praise for revolutionizing the hunt for terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. “This guy was one of the best intelligence officers in several generations,” Nunes told me in a December 23, 2016 interview. “I don’t know if you’ve ever met him, but Flynn is extremely smart. He really is top notch.”
Nunes was speaking fives months after Flynn had startled many former military officers by leading “Lock her up” chants against Hillary Clinton at the Republican National Convention…
During Flynn’s tenure, the neophyte intelligence overseer and the general came to share a number of beliefs. One was that the CIA was suppressing the release of documents captured from Osama Bin Laden’s lair that supposedly showed a closer relationship between Al-Qaeda and Iran than the Obama White House, then conducting backchannel talks with Tehran on halting its nuclear weapons program, wanted known…
Nunes concurred with Flynn’s insistence that Tehran was involved with the 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate and annex in Benghazi, and oversaw a two-year investigation into the incident, focusing on what Republicans had portrayed as] the Obama administration’s inept responses.
* The racist Attorney General is at it again.
This bit of information is critical to understanding the racism of those remarks:
It’s worth noting that some local Southern sheriffs historically worked to enforce segregation and crack down heavily on civil rights movements in the spirit of the “heritage” that many modern white nationalists cite.
Remember…Bull Connor was a sheriff.
* Finally, what a profound statement during Black History Month.
The Obama portraits are an important marker. The fact that they chose Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald to paint them matters — in fact it’s huge — and underscores the former first couple’s longtime championing of contemporary black artists. More here: https://t.co/LRHoWh3iqp pic.twitter.com/oXFt9m8KzD
— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid ? (@JoyAnnReid) February 12, 2018
From the former president’s remarks today:
“These works upend the notion that there are worlds where African Americans belong & worlds where we don’t. And that’s something Michelle & I hope we contributed to over the 8 years we were so privileged to serve you from the White House.” –@BarackObama
I couldn’t miss him more. https://t.co/opM8gNEoVV
— Jon Zal (@OfficialJonZal) February 12, 2018
