Former Obama Officials, Loyalists Waged Secret Campaign to Oust Flynn

Washington Free Beacon  "The abrupt resignation Monday evening of White House national security adviser Michael Flynn is the culmination of a secret, months-long campaign by former Obama administration confidantes to handicap President Donald Trump's national security apparatus and preserve the nuclear deal with Iran, according to multiple sources in and out of the White House who described to the Washington Free Beacon a behind-the-scenes effort by these officials to plant a series of damaging stories about Flynn in the national media.

"The effort, said to include former Obama administration adviser Ben Rhodes—the architect of a separate White House effort to create what he described as a pro-Iran echo chamber—included a small task force of Obama loyalists who deluged media outlets with stories aimed at eroding Flynn's credibility, multiple sources revealed.

"The operation primarily focused on discrediting Flynn, an opponent of the Iran nuclear deal, in order to handicap the Trump administration's efforts to disclose secret details of the nuclear deal with Iran that had been long hidden by the Obama administration.

"Insiders familiar with the anti-Flynn campaign told the Free Beacon that these Obama loyalists plotted in the months before Trump's inauguration to establish a set of roadblocks before Trump's national security team, which includes several prominent opponents of diplomacy with Iran. The Free Beacon first reported on this effort in January.

"Sources who spoke to the Free Beacon requested anonymity in order to speak freely about the situation and avoid interfering with the White House's official narrative about Flynn, which centers on his failure to adequately inform the president about a series of phone calls with Russian officials." . . .

It’s time for the duplicitous “day without immigrants”

Hot Air  "If you happen to be in Washington DC, New York City or a few other major metropolitan areas today you may find some of your favorite restaurants and watering holes closed. No, it’s not a national holiday that you forgot about which is causing either the doors to be closed or the facilities to be on reduced service schedules. Activists who oppose the president have started yet another online “movement” in an attempt to disrupt normal services. In a highly dishonest and misleading campaign, they have declared today to be “a day without immigrants.” (New York Times)" . . .

. . .

"I have yet to meet a single person among the ranks of conservatives concerned about border security who is opposed to legal immigration or fails to value the contributions of those who come to our country following well-defined rules to make a new life."

. . .

"The truly nauseating portion of this is the fact that the entire concept is an insult to those who followed the rules, came to America and made a new life for themselves. This so-called protest is encouraging them to lose a day’s pay on behalf of those who refused to follow the rules and continue to break the laws set forth under the Constitution which naturalized citizens have sworn to defend." . . .

And if all that were not enough. there will be this:

Women’s March calls for General Strike and Day Without A Women

"Jezebel, however, is really excited, noting that there is no date on the calendar yet, though some activists are focusing on March 8:"

[a] women’s strike on March 8 that would be positioned “against male violence and in defense of reproductive rights” ….
Stay tuned, comrades!

Political Consensus Is Splintering Into Class Wars

Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog

"Understanding how these many wars will be waged is critical to surviving them intact."

In years past, we spoke of class war between the haves and the have-nots. It's no longer that simple. Now the traditional political consensus is splintering into multiple class wars between overlapping camps of the protected and the unprotected, those who've been promised entitlements and privileges that are no longer affordable and those expected to pay more taxes.

In Fiery, "Surreal" Press Conference, Trump Launches War On "Out Of Control" Press: Main Highlights

Zero Hedge  Numerous videos from the presser here.

"Many of our nation's reporters and folks will not tell you the truth and will not treat you with the respect you deserve," Trump said from the White House's East Room.

"Much of the media in Washington, D.C., along with New York, Los Angeles in particular, speaks for the special interests and for those profiting off the obviously very, very broken system.

The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people.

The press is out of control, the level of dishonesty is out of control" . . .

Humana exit highlights uncertainty about ObamaCare replacement plan

Weasel Zippers

"Humana’s decision to exit the ObamaCare exchanges at the end of the year could trigger a “domino effect” among insurers, with companies abandoning the marketplace and potentially leaving thousands with diminished or zero coverage options in 2018.

"Humana became the first insurance company to pull out of the exchanges for 2018 on Tuesday, amid uncertainty from Congress and the Trump administration about what an ObamaCare replacement will look like and when it might be implemented.
. . .
"And history shows that once one insurer drops out of the exchanges, others are likely to follow.

"For example, when Aetna announced last year that it would pull out of most of the exchanges, UnitedHealthcare and Humana also scaled back their participation.
“It did start to feel like a domino effect last year, and it could be something similar this year,” said Cynthia Cox, a health policy expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation." . . .

Arabs, Trump and Israel

legalinsurrection

Did Netanyahu Just Tell Us What A Two-State Solution Looks Like?  "As I noted here, the Trump administration has effectively — and I think rightfully — decided to not pursue the same failed “Mideast peace process” we’ve chased like some will ‘o the wisp.

"The White House said that the agreement between Israel and the Islamofascist suicide bombers Palestinians must be worked out between those two parties and as long as that solution is supportive of peace and stability that the United States will support it. When coupled with the earlier statement that pointedly allowed Israel to build more housing within existing settlement areas, it clearly puts the onus on the Palestinians to either make a deal or to see a de facto border developed that might include more of the land they think is theirs than they would like." . . .

"Now let’s look at a map of Israeli settlement activity since 1967 and areas under Israeli control we see this:"

"How much of historic Judea do you think the Palestinians are going get to keep? I’m guessing you are looking at the maximum extent of Palestinian control and that area will be subject to shrinkage unless they reach a deal soon." . . .

California Schools Cut Meat, Cheese From Lunches To Fight Global Warming

Weasel Zippers/

Daily Caller  "Oakland schools partnered with the environmental group Friends of the Earth (FOE) to fight global warming by making student lunches climate-friendly.

"FOE gave kids a lunch menu designed to eliminate foods it says are “unsustainable for our planet.” The new menu features far less meat and more plant-based food. Any meat or cheese the school did use came from “pastured, organic dairy cows.” The student’s lunch menu went from beef hot dogs and pepperoni pizza to vegan stir fry tofu and vegan tostadas. The new FOE-approved menu served meat and cheese-less frequently and reduced the portion sizes.

“ 'This is a landmark moment for school food,” Jennifer LeBarre, head of nutrition services for Oakland Unified School District, said in a FOE press statement. “We were so excited to see how the data showed that we could reduce our carbon and water footprint by serving healthy, delicious food –– like the vegetarian tostadas with fresh made in-house salsa, that kids absolutely love –– all while saving money.”

"The district and FOE claimed the lunch program was healthier than before, but only on the basis that food from plants is typically healthier than meat. The study justifies its health claims by stating average poultry consumption fell. FOE did not undertake an actual study into whether or not the lunches improved student health." . . .

The Three-Headed Hydra of the Middle East

Victor Davis Hanson

Trump has inherited a matrix of problems that primarily stem from Iran, Russia, and ISIS.

"The abrupt Obama administration pre-election pullout from Iraq in 2011, along with the administration’s failed reset with Russia and the Iran deal, created a three-headed hydra in the Middle East.

"What makes the Middle East monster deadly is the interplay between the Iranian terrorist regime and its surrogates Hezbollah and the Assad regime; Russian president Vladimir Putin’s deployment of bombers into Syria and Iraq after a 40-year Russian hiatus in the region; and the medieval beheaders of the Islamic State.

"Add into the brew anti-Americanism, genocide, millions of refugees, global terrorism, and nuclear weapons.

"ISIS is simultaneously at war against the Assad regime, Iran and Iranian surrogates such Hezbollah, and Russian expeditionary forces. ISIS also seeks to energize terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe.

"Stranger still, ISIS almost surely is receiving stealth support from Sunni nations in the Middle East, some of them ostensibly American allies.

"This matrix gets even crazier.

"The authors of reset policy during the Obama administration are now furious at President Trump for even talking about what they tried for years: reaching out to Putin. Yet in the Middle East, Russia is doing us a favor by attacking ISIS, even as it does no favors in saving the genocidal Assad regime that has murdered tens of thousands of innocents — along with lots of ISIS terrorists as well." . . . 

The Silence of the Lambs Congress

Ann Coulter  "Let's compare what President Trump has accomplished since the inauguration (with that enormous crowd!) with what congressional Republicans have done. 
   
"In the past three weeks, Trump has: staffed the White House, sent a dozen Cabinet nominees to the Senate, browbeat Boeing into cutting its price on a government contract, harangued American CEOs into keeping their plants in the United States, imposed a terrorist travel ban, met with foreign leaders and nominated a Supreme Court justice, among many other things.

"(And still our hero finds time to torment the media with his tweets!)

What have congressional Republicans been doing? Scrapbooking?

"More than 90 percent of congressional Republicans kept their jobs after the 2016 election, so you can cross "staffing an entire branch of government" off the list. Only the Senate confirms nominees, which they've been doing at a snail's pace, so they've got loads of free time -- and the House has no excuse at all.

"Where's the Obamacare repeal? Where are the hearings featuring middle-class Americans with no health insurance because it was made illegal by Obamacare?

"The House passed six Obamacare repeals when Obama was president and there was no chance of them being signed into law. Back then, Republicans were full of vim and vigor! But the moment Trump became president, the repeals came to a screeching halt." . . .

Can't Hillary be capable of looking deep inside to see herself as so many Americans saw her?

Lena Dunham says not to blame her for Hillary's loss   Language advisory. . . . "It's amazing. I'm like, "Why don't we check in with Russia, you guys?" I think it tends to come more from the right wing, although I'm not sure. Now it's so hard to know what's coming from where, because stories get published on Breitbart and two days later they're in Newsweek and you're like, "What the f--k is happening right now?" No one is more studied in the art of the right wing planting a story and liberals eating each other alive over it than I am. I see it every single day, but I'm not gonna stand there screaming about it, 'cause that makes you a bad sport. And also it's boring and I'm not interested in it. But do people want me to go, "I don't think I'm really good for this. I'm gonna bow out"? I wouldn't see any use for celebrity if I wasn't fighting rabidly for what I thought was right." . . ."I'm like. . . "?

This pre-inauguration article calls HRC like she is  . . . "Well, Donald Trump had one thing in his favor: he ran against one of the most unpopular and despised presidential candidates in American history, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Combine the electorate’s Clinton antipathy with a risky but targeted strategy to flip the Rust Belt and it’s not so hard to understand why Donald Trump, a man with no experience in government, will be sitting in the oval office come late January." . . .

 'Well, allow me to retort. Hillary Clinton lost the election because she was a terrible candidate. Nobody likes or trusts her (yes, elections actually are popularity contests) and her neoliberal domestic policies and neoconservative foreign policies turned people off because they are genuinely bad. Clinton represented the establishment in a change election, something she was happy to do. She even openly courted Republicans hoping her “temperament” talking point would make partisan Republicans vote for one of the most hated Democrats in history. It didn’t work.